Super Forecasting

Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner

Synopsis

The Ten Commandments of Superforecasting

  1. Focus your time and effort on forecasts that will prove rewarding.
  2. Unpack problems to expose assumptions, catch mistakes, and correct biases.
  3. Consider the larger category before looking at the particular case.
  4. Revise your beliefs often, and in small increments, to reduce the risks of both over- and under-reacting to the news.
  5. Find merit in opposing viewpoints
  6. Reject the illusion of certainty and learn to think in degrees of uncertainty.
  7. Avoid being either a blowhard or a waffler. Aim to be prudently decisive.
  8. Learn from experience, whether success or failure.
  9. Use precision questioning to bring out the best in others--and to let others bring out the best in you.
  10. Try, fail, analyze, and adjust. And try again.
  11. There are no universally correct commandments, including these. Question everything.