III. Common Practice Biases and Mistakes
We introduced a long list of cognitive-emotional and social biases in Chapter 2 (Personal Foresight). These are the most important biases to understand, both in ourselves and others. Appendix 1 (Peer Advice) offers more thoughts on biases and practice mistakes. You can avoid these and other biases and mistakes by becoming aware of them, by vetting your own work with emotionally and cognitively-diverse colleagues and subject matter experts, and by continually learning more about the science and complex systems relevant to your practice, to make it more evidence-based.
Beyond not seeing acceleration (Chapter 7), evolutionary development (Chapter 11), and being sufficiently evidence-based, here is a brief list of other unfortunately common practice biases and practice mistakes in our field. We’ve all been guilty of each of the following at one time or another in our work. They are quite common. Forgive yourself, pick yourself up, and try again, and you’ll quickly get better than the average practitioner, which is an important first milestone for any aspiring professional.
As we do more formal surveys of the field we will continue to expand and edit this list in future versions of the Guide.
