Dr. Steven Novella

And that's the beginning of the process, right?

And that's part of the freeing aspect, too, because you're getting out of all of that.

Some people don't even realize how oppressive it is.

It's like, oh, I didn't realize how oppressed I was having to always defend my party or whatever it is.

Now I can just think for myself.

But again, the risk is always, especially with newly minted skeptics, people who are just starting to really practice, remember to be humble because...

The real risk is you start to think you know stuff.

And then once you think the journey's over, it ends.

So the journey has to never be over.

No, they have the humility.

I'll tell you, same thing is true of a good scientist.

Again, I'm coming from an academic culture, so I'm biased by that.

It's harder for me to speak to your average person out in the field in private practice.

But certainly within academia, humility is critical.

And I'll tell you, you can't fake it to other academics.

You know what I mean?

You can't fake expertise to an actual expert, because they'll see you coming a mile away.

And when somebody gets high on their own stuff, they get too full of themselves, everyone else knows it.

The other people in their very small community can usually sniff that out.

if you're not being humble.