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Skepticism: The Writer’s Most Important Skill
A case study on a simple, oft-repeated fact that’s just not true
This is an article aimed at writers. But it’s also relevant to readers. Because we all need a healthy dose of skepticism— now more than ever, given all the misinformation and disinformation out there. But even when we think we’re learning (and possibly repeating) trusted information, we must remain skeptical, because…
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
— Thomas Paine
If you have some area of knowledge or expertise — perhaps a profession or a particular disease or a sport or a hobby — I bet you’ve seen inaccuracies in articles written by well-meaning writers who do not know the topic as well as you do. The frequency of such mistakes exposes the larger truth: No writer ever has a full understanding of any topic.
Even geniuses don’t know everything about their area of expertise. Newton was wrong about how gravity works on large scales. Einstein corrected him, then he made a few mistakes in his own work. Edison got a bunch of things wrong before that light bulb finally went off.
If they can screw up, so can we writers.
And this is why, as a writer, you need to have your skeptic’s hat on at all times. If you wish to be a successful writer of factual nonfiction, skepticism is your most important skill. There are many other important skills, of course, from curiosity to good grammar, but none are more foundationally important than skepticism.
I do not mean the sort of skepticism that implies never trusting or believing anything, nor am I talking about outright negativity or a conspiracy mindset. Proper skepticism just means having a healthy, questioning nature, not accepting things as true just because you heard or read them somewhere — whether in The New York Times, on Fox News, or in a scientific journal. Proper skepticism is methodical. It seeks original sources. It vets credibility. It casts aside opinion and conjecture and zeroes in on truth, if there’s any there.
