Ep 114: Andy Norman | Why it feels dangerous to challenge our deepest beliefs

Rethinking Communication

Much of our language these days carries with it an unspoken message — an undertone of an individualistic, self-serving, perhaps even entitled mindset about not just our actions, but our beliefs and opinions.

But what of our responsibilities to others? Do those even exist? Or, what of our responsibilities to question ourselves? Is that a thing?

In this episode, I welcome back Andy Norman. Andy was my guest back in episode 65 when we discussed his book, Mental Immunity, and he’s the Co-Founder and CEO of The Mental Immunity Project.

Andy and I discuss belief attachment and its role in driving us to be more unthinkingly binary in how we view complex issues and indiscriminately suspicious of new ideas.

What Andy advocates for is what he calls “shades of gray thinking” as a way to invite in nuance and dig out of a binary mindset where you’re forced to have all the answers all the time (which, by the way, simply isn’t possible).

At the core of Andy’s message is a call to hold onto beliefs lightly and be willing to challenge them, not to necessarily prove yourself wrong, but to be more adept at recognizing when and why your capacity to think critically might be weakened or perhaps even intentionally hijacked.

Check out Andy's work at https://andynorman.org/ and https://mentalimmunityproject.org/, and take the Mental Immunity challenge at https://mentalimmunityproject.org/mi-challenge/.