To be an effective advocate, it's important to balance passion and doing what feels validating with a more distanced, rational perspective. This podcast—an interview with Julia Galef author of The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't—discusses how we can overcome the ways our own minds deceive us and change the way we think to make more rational decisions. It points out that these two mental approaches each have their place: "soldier mindset" is about being committed to a point of view and defending it (the kind of rigidity needed to fight battles), while "scout mindset" is focused on being open to being wrong, and motivated to come to the most accurate view through rationality and evidence. For advocates and activists, this means that, while being in solider mindset and motivated to champion a position or validate a political identity can provide passion and inspiration, it can also blind us from correctly identifying what actions will actually generate the impact we seek. For example, "arguing with strangers on the internet" may be identity-validating and make use feel good, but not be actually strategic and impactful. Policies that feel symbolically satisfying may not actually create as much change as those that actually work, but run against our moral intuitions. (The specific discussion of these concepts to activism begins at around the 30 minute mark of the podcast episode)