Listen to the Suck with Curiosity
Effective leaders do not block out criticism or attacks and instead seek to investigate failure (“the suck”) so as to understand why it happened and how to resolve it. Bahcall calls this “Listening to the Suck with Curiosity”:
On every setback or rejection I experience, which occurs often, I try to remind myself of a third lesson from the fragility of loonshots… I think of it as Listening to the Suck with Curiosity (LSC)—overcoming the urge to defend and dismiss when attacked and instead investigating failure with an open mind.
…
LSC means not only listening for the Suck and acknowledging receipt but also probing beneath the surface, with genuine curiosity, why something isn’t working, why people are not buying. It’s hard to hear that no one likes your baby. It’s even harder to keep asking why.
…
LSC, for me, is a signal. When someone challenges the project you’ve invested years in, do you defend with anger or investigate with genuine curiosity? I find it’s when I question the least that I need to worry the most.[1]
See also:
- Confirmation Bias defends one's assumptions
- Motivated reasoning is the soldier mindset
- Sunk Cost Fallacy
Loonshots – Bahcall (2019), ch. 2, § “LSC: Listen to the Suck with Curiosity” ↩︎