As you'll no doubt remember from episode #351, 😆 one of my favorite psychological biases is naive realism, which one of my favorite behavioral scientists/social psychologists Nick Epley defined in his excellent book Mindwise (2014) as "the intuitive sense that we see the world out there as it actually is, rather than as it appears from our own perspective." This leads to frequent misunderstandings with colleagues and loved ones, who suffer from the same bias in seeing things from their own perspectives.
I was thrilled to discover an entire episode of the Choiceology behavioral economics podcast — "The Reality Trap" — on naive realism. In that episode, the host, Katy Milkman, a Wharton professor and former president of the International Society for Judgment and Decision Making, interviewed Julia Minson, a public policy professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Minson offered her own definition of naive realism: "the belief that most of us walk around with most of the time that our perceptions of the world and our reactions to the things we observe are reasonable and objective and basically unbiased. I see the world as it really is." When Milkman asked Minson what her research on naive realism has led her to do differently in her work or in her life, the following is what Minson offered as professional and marital advice, and I BEG YOU to actually play the clip, which is only 30 seconds long, so I can't be accused of having made this up:
Now that you've heard it for yourself, I'll repeat what Minson said, because I cannot understate my joy at conveying this nugget of wisdom:
When you disagree with a smart person, you are wrong 50% of the time. That's just a very good heuristic to remember. Half the time you are the one who's wrong. You would do well to remember that, especially in ... marital arguments.
I know everyone won't believe this, but it makes my heart sing anyway.
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About five years ago, Dylan asked me for more recipes for savory sauces with multiple uses. That's when I made the "Savory Sauces" heading in the Recipes index, which now has about 15 items in it. Here's another entry for that list. This couldn't be quicker and simpler to make. With a quarter cup of lemon juice, it looks like it would be too lemon-y for Dylan's liking, but we didn't find it to have an overwhelming lemon taste at all. Dylan can always start with less lemon and add more if he's worried about it. As you can see, we used this for dipping roasted broccoli into, and it was great for that, as it would be for all sorts of roasted veggies. Mom also used some of the leftover sauce to dress her daily avocado/tomato/mozzarella lunch salad, instead of the usual EVOO, and she really liked it for that too. It would also be good for dressing other kinds of salad as a change of pace from the usual vinaigrette.
Tahini Sauce
Adapted from Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook, as adapted by Samin Nosrat for NYT Cooking (Aug. 2, 2016)
Time: ~8 minutes
130 grams (½ cup) tahini, well stirred
90 grams (6 tablespoons) water
60 grams (¼ cup) freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 garlic clove, carefully grated on a Microplane
In a medium bowl, whisk everything together until smooth. Taste and adjust salt and lemon as preferred. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
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