Any belief or value should be verified and/or falsified…

Any belief or value should be verified and/or falsified in an exhaustive manner. Are you absolutely sure of this belief. Opinion. Belief. Value.

— from The Mind in the Cockpit

In the book

So the discipline is to treat your important beliefs the way a scientist treats a hypothesis: verify them, try hard to falsify them, and ask honestly — am I actually sure this is true, and how would I know if it weren't? Your beliefs together form a map, and the only question that finally matters about a map is whether it matches the ground. The humbling fact is that some of yours are certainly wrong — you just don't yet know which, and that is fine, so long as you stay willing to be shown. […] The mindset first: distrust the reading, cross-check everything, and never forget that you are the easiest person you will ever fool. Cross-check your beliefs against evidence. Take an important belief and treat it as a hypothesis: try to falsify it, and ask whether you are truly sure. When you catch yourself wanting something to be true, deliberately flip the question from "can I believe this?" to "must I believe this?" And ask the plainest precaution of all: am I taking real steps to avoid fooling myself? - Choose to think, on purpose. A thousand times a day you choose between thinking and not thinking — you are genuinely free to think, to not bother, or to actively avoid it, so choose the harder option more often. — The Mind in the Cockpit

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