Most people believe they think clearly. What they actually do is react, rationalise, and call the result a conclusion. The machinery of bad thinking is not random. It follows patterns, and those patterns are so reliable that once you learn to spot them, you start seeing them everywhere: in policy debates, in boardrooms, in your own head at 2 a.m.
This is not a catalogue of stupidity. Intelligent people are often the worst offenders, because intelligence gives you better tools for defending a bad position. The smarter the person, the more elaborate the fortification around his errors.
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