One Simple Technique To Assess Arguments Made By Authors In Books

A single habit has improved the quality of my book reading more than anything else: reading rebuttals.

To explain, let me first give some context.

I’ve long enjoyed reading big-idea books in science, business or self-improvement. These books range from mega-bestsellers (The Tipping Point; Guns, Germs and Steel) to the relatively obscure (The Enigma of Reason; How Asia Works).

In most cases, I don’t have deep expertise in the topic I’m reading about. The research literature the authors cite is unfamiliar to me. I don’t know whether the proposed idea is a near-consensus opinion or some quirky theory held by a fringe minority.

As a result, reading big-idea books can lead to a common pattern:

1. You know nothing about a topic, X, and have few or no strong preconceived ideas.
2. You read an author with a bold proclamation, Y, which they claim is the right way to think about X. They support this claim with fancy citations, graphs, and impressive rejoinders to objections you hadn’t even considered.
3. You leave convinced that Y is the right way to think about X.
4. Someone points out some of the flaws in Y. Maybe you read a different book about all the reasons Y is the wrong way to think about X!
5. Now you feel hoodwinked. That original author, who proposed Y, had tricked you! What seemed obvious no longer does, and…