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Julia Galef

President of the Center for Applied Rationality, and Author “The Scout Mindset”

Julia Galef is a New York-based writer and public speaker specializing in science, rationality, and design. She serves on the board of directors of the New York City Skeptics; co-hosts their official podcast, Rationally Speaking; and co-writes the blog Rationally Speaking along with philosopher of science Massimo Pigliucci. She has moderated panel discussions at The Amazing Meeting and the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism and gives frequent public lectures to organizations, including the Center for Inquiry and the Secular Student Alliance. Julia received her B.A. in statistics from Columbia in 2005.

She is the author of The Scout Mindset, published in April 2021. The book is about the skill of looking at things honestly and objectively, why that’s so valuable, why it doesn’t come naturally to humans, and how we can get better at it.

A woman with long brown hair, wearing a dark blazer, maroon top, and a beaded necklace, poses against a plain white background.
Be Cautious of the Fallacy Fallacy
There’s a danger to learning about cognitive biases and logical fallacies and so on which is that you end up with this tool kit of ways to reject other people’s arguments.