June 30, 2025 • 10 mins
Can you walk around being skeptical all day long? At what point do you need to let your guard down? We suggest that not only can you go about your day being skeptical, it is better if you do. We'll explain.
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- https://www.theskepticsguide.org/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
to Why we do what we do Mini. I'm your
host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
(00:24):
non human animals do and we release these short form
discussions where we just take a topic and we dive
into it really quick. And that's called a mini and
that's why we call it that. It's because it's small.
That's what we're doing here. And sometimes when we do
podcast episodes, we talk about things that people say and
then I disagree with them and I say why they're wrong,
And that's what we'll be doing today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, this shows equal parts information
and mythbusting. So you know, I think here's one of
the ones where we're like, no, that was incorrect.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
So we're just going to dive in.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
But first I would just say really quick that if
you do like what you hear today and you'd like
to support us, and you haven't already, you can join
us on Patreon get some benefits there, and that really
helps us. You can also like subscribe, believe the rating
and review and tell a friend I am slur in
my words I'm trying.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Not to tell. That's okay, So I'm going to try
and be.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
More articulate moving forward. But yeah, let's go ahead and
get into it. So let me set the stage because
this was inspired by a thing that happened in a
recent podcast I was listening to. Someone made a comment
that they're like, well, you can't walk around being skeptical
all day, and then they gave a long explanation as
to why I am skeptical of that claim, and I
(01:30):
think that they're wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, so let's go ahead and try to unpack what
it means to be skeptical all day and whether you can. Now.
In order to do that, first we have to understand
what is meant by skeptic or being skeptical. Now, this
means that we are thinking critically about things. Being skeptical
means we're thinking critically about stuff, and that's pretty much it.
It means being aware of your own biases and the
(01:52):
kinds of tricks and obfuscations that are designed to try
to manipulate you or make you think a certain way.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, skeptical like you question things when they seem like
they don't make a lot of sense. That you question
yourself to ensure that you have aggregated the most relevant
information in the most relevant way. That's what it means.
It means admitting you are wrong when you discover that
you're wrong. It means being open to new information and
incorporating that new information into your understanding of things. It
(02:22):
is not actually that easy. It takes vigilance, It takes
constant work, and it takes an orientation to the value
of learning, I think to be able to embrace this
and do it, and you just have to kind of
stay on top of it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and to be fair. The comment on the episode,
which the host elaborated on, alluded more to the idea
of being skeptical as doubting everything that you hear. The
concern was you can't walk around being skeptical, i e.
Doubting everything that you encounter. Like basically the idea being like,
if I see this thing, I'm questioning every single thing
that I see all day every day thoroughly. Right, that's
(02:56):
not really and that's kind of what what he's getting at.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Maybe, yeah, it's like that we can't do that. And
I mean, sure, if we put the actual definition aside
and we accept that, like the actual definition definition of skeptic. Aside,
and except that doubting is what they meant, I still
kind of take umbrage with this statement, like with the
with the claim that they're making here.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, so first, I don't think this is a reality
for anyone. For one thing, philosophically speaking, if you are
doubting everything, then you are even doubting your doubting, So
you're spending so much time doubting that you it's like
it's kind of like exhibit on the on pit My Ride,
except you're pimping your brain. And what you're doing is
you're you're adding doubt to your doubts so that you
can doubt while you doubt, And that seems like it's
(03:37):
a little bit exhausting. You would be unable to do
anything all day because you're doubting so much. In the
nature of language by itself makes the position of doubting
everything essentially impossible. Even still, this would not be a
real experience anyone has had or will ever have, so
the premise doesn't really work on that level or at all.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, it'd be sort of like claiming you can't go
around swiming underwater while holding your breath all day, I'm like, yeah,
you die. Yeah, that does not a thing you can do,
So the claim that you can't do it is kind
of null.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
One.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So let's go to a second position here. If you
were to walk around doubting things, let's assume that what
he meant is doubting. Of course, you're not going to
doubt all things equally, right, there are things that you
can readily observe and things that you know that you
would not doubt even if you did want to doubt
a bunch of things. If you see that a refrigerator
is closed, you're not going to assume that it's actually
(04:29):
open and then try and reach through the door that
is closed. Right, So, even just walking around being doubtful,
you're likely only engaging in like a relatively reasonable amount
of doubt. Anyway, You're not going to doubt things that
are like your actual, clear, observable experiences. That would be nonsense,
That would be maladaptive to the point of you like
needing to seek therapeutic help because you could not function
(04:52):
about your day assuming that the things that you experience
around you aren't really happening.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, and you know one thing I do I will
say is like the amount of doubting that we do,
like sometimes it does get confirmed, Like I doubt that
we would go through a whole episode without an ad
And here we are, all right, you doubting debies. Let's
go into the third part of this, right, So let's
(05:18):
imagine that the commenter we're talking about doubting, right, how
we can't doubt all day and all this stuff. So
let's imagine the commenter even meant the definition of skepticism
that we offered at the beginning of this, and that
the suggestion is that you can't walk around being critical
of things. Okay, to that, I would say that is
how I go about my day. I know that Abraham
goes about his day like that too. I'm pretty critical
(05:39):
of everything, not in a really terrible way or like
a mean way, or not a criticize it. We're thinking
about criticizing. I'm thinking about stuff exactly. And so, like anything,
it's a habit, it's a practice. You practice this skill
over and over and over again, and it's a muscle
you strengthen with repetition.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Right, You do this often.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And you and then it comes you become fluent in it.
It's very natural for you to go Huh, I wonder
why they chose that book cover, or huh, I wonder
why that piece of music is arranged the way it is,
Why didn't extend it another measure, or like it's one
of those things where you're kind of already doing that
when you're thinking about things.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, you're just thinking about things.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I would actually argue that even a lot, if
not most people walk around being at least somewhat skeptical.
The majority of the time. We don't see a tree
move and assume it was a ghost. We don't see
rainfall and assume it was caused by a wizard. We
don't avoid getting into our cars because we don't avoid
getting to our cars because we fear that a basilisk
(06:40):
is waiting inside, ready to turn us to stone with
its gaze. Like, we generally go about our days interacting
as effectively as we can, which means we're being a
skeptical and we're operating pretty effectively. So I think that
not only is it the case that we can't, I
not only think that it's wrong to say we can't
go about our day just being skeptical all day. I think,
(07:00):
for a lot of the day, a lot of us
do just very naturally go about our day being at
least a little bit skeptical of things all day long.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, what fantasy novel were you reading when you wrote
that specific bullet point, because I feel like.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I was thinking about Harry Potter. But yes, yes, but
I was not actually reading Harry Potter. I was just
thinking about it, just thinking about maybe it was maybe
it's you die, or your pet not turned to stone,
or you're petrified like you, I don't know, I remember
what it does.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
But no, no you turn no, no, no, you're right, no,
I it's then it was all very accurate. I was
just like wizards some dosed and basilisks, like that's pretty accurate.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So that feels good. I was thinking of Harry Potter.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But yeah, I saw a great interview the other day
that did say that, like it like, why do they
celebrate Christmas? Because if they celebrated Christmas, that would make
them think that Jesus was this all powerful thing. But
in the hot in the Wizarding World, Jesus would be
a terrible wizard. Like you show up at Hogwarts and go,
look here's I turned this water into wine, and everybody's like, yeah,
get in line, that's potions one oh one.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You know, yeah we did that. No, we did that
in pre wizard school.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, come on, like you had. That was the test
you had to pass to get in here. Anyway, Not
only can you walk around being skeptical all day, we
would argue that it's actually better to do this. It's
better to think deeply about things and critically about things,
and take an idea and turning around in your head
and understanding all the angles of it. Like, that's a
good thing. It's good to reflect on your own cognitive biases.
(08:25):
It's good to reflect on your own cognition and like
think about your thinking even, like it's good to deconstruct
arguments that are meant to manipulate you. It's good to
question the answer. And all of these are skills that
benefit us and lead us to success. It leads us
to be more emotionally intelligent people. It leads us to
be more generally intelligent people. It leads us to be
more compassionate people when we can think about circumstances and
(08:47):
think about things in different ways. So, yes, we should
be skeptical about things. We should be critical about things,
we should think through problem solving all day because it
makes us better thinkers and better humans in general.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yes, so, yeah, exactly that.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Not only is it the argument being like, you can't
walk around being skeptical all day like most people do
a version of that already, some of us do it
a lot more and all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And not only can you, but I think that we should. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I think that their argument is wrong. Agreed, And if
you would like to disagree with me about that, listener,
then you can email us at info atwwdwwdpodcast dot com.
You can also agree with me if you want. I'm
perfectly good with that. You can also reach us on
the social media platforms. If you would like to support
what we do on the show, then you can reach
us directly. I told you that by emailing us, but
you can also reach us on the social media platforms.
(09:35):
If you like to support us directly, you can join
us on Patreon. There you'll get bonus content, ad free content,
extra goodies, and I will read your name on the
episodes like subscribe, tell a friends.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
But I think those are the things.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Is there anything you would like to add or anything
that I forgot before we wrap up this mini in
an appropriate amount of time.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I think that covers it. I cannot believe we did
an episode in ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
That was amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Go forth and be skeptical everybody. Why we do what
we do?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Mini is out.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
HI.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to WWD WWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening,
and we hope you have an awesome day
You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
to Why we do what we do Mini. I'm your
host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
(00:24):
non human animals do and we release these short form
discussions where we just take a topic and we dive
into it really quick. And that's called a mini and
that's why we call it that. It's because it's small.
That's what we're doing here. And sometimes when we do
podcast episodes, we talk about things that people say and
then I disagree with them and I say why they're wrong,
And that's what we'll be doing today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, this shows equal parts information
and mythbusting. So you know, I think here's one of
the ones where we're like, no, that was incorrect.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
So we're just going to dive in.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
But first I would just say really quick that if
you do like what you hear today and you'd like
to support us, and you haven't already, you can join
us on Patreon get some benefits there, and that really
helps us. You can also like subscribe, believe the rating
and review and tell a friend I am slur in
my words I'm trying.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Not to tell. That's okay, So I'm going to try
and be.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
More articulate moving forward. But yeah, let's go ahead and
get into it. So let me set the stage because
this was inspired by a thing that happened in a
recent podcast I was listening to. Someone made a comment
that they're like, well, you can't walk around being skeptical
all day, and then they gave a long explanation as
to why I am skeptical of that claim, and I
(01:30):
think that they're wrong.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, so let's go ahead and try to unpack what
it means to be skeptical all day and whether you can. Now.
In order to do that, first we have to understand
what is meant by skeptic or being skeptical. Now, this
means that we are thinking critically about things. Being skeptical
means we're thinking critically about stuff, and that's pretty much it.
It means being aware of your own biases and the
(01:52):
kinds of tricks and obfuscations that are designed to try
to manipulate you or make you think a certain way.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, skeptical like you question things when they seem like
they don't make a lot of sense. That you question
yourself to ensure that you have aggregated the most relevant
information in the most relevant way. That's what it means.
It means admitting you are wrong when you discover that
you're wrong. It means being open to new information and
incorporating that new information into your understanding of things. It
(02:22):
is not actually that easy. It takes vigilance, It takes
constant work, and it takes an orientation to the value
of learning, I think to be able to embrace this
and do it, and you just have to kind of
stay on top of it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and to be fair. The comment on the episode,
which the host elaborated on, alluded more to the idea
of being skeptical as doubting everything that you hear. The
concern was you can't walk around being skeptical, i e.
Doubting everything that you encounter. Like basically the idea being like,
if I see this thing, I'm questioning every single thing
that I see all day every day thoroughly. Right, that's
(02:56):
not really and that's kind of what what he's getting at.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Maybe, yeah, it's like that we can't do that. And
I mean, sure, if we put the actual definition aside
and we accept that, like the actual definition definition of skeptic. Aside,
and except that doubting is what they meant, I still
kind of take umbrage with this statement, like with the
with the claim that they're making here.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, so first, I don't think this is a reality
for anyone. For one thing, philosophically speaking, if you are
doubting everything, then you are even doubting your doubting, So
you're spending so much time doubting that you it's like
it's kind of like exhibit on the on pit My Ride,
except you're pimping your brain. And what you're doing is
you're you're adding doubt to your doubts so that you
can doubt while you doubt, And that seems like it's
(03:37):
a little bit exhausting. You would be unable to do
anything all day because you're doubting so much. In the
nature of language by itself makes the position of doubting
everything essentially impossible. Even still, this would not be a
real experience anyone has had or will ever have, so
the premise doesn't really work on that level or at all.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, it'd be sort of like claiming you can't go
around swiming underwater while holding your breath all day, I'm like, yeah,
you die. Yeah, that does not a thing you can do,
So the claim that you can't do it is kind
of null.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
One.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
So let's go to a second position here. If you
were to walk around doubting things, let's assume that what
he meant is doubting. Of course, you're not going to
doubt all things equally, right, there are things that you
can readily observe and things that you know that you
would not doubt even if you did want to doubt
a bunch of things. If you see that a refrigerator
is closed, you're not going to assume that it's actually
(04:29):
open and then try and reach through the door that
is closed. Right, So, even just walking around being doubtful,
you're likely only engaging in like a relatively reasonable amount
of doubt. Anyway, You're not going to doubt things that
are like your actual, clear, observable experiences. That would be nonsense,
That would be maladaptive to the point of you like
needing to seek therapeutic help because you could not function
(04:52):
about your day assuming that the things that you experience
around you aren't really happening.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, and you know one thing I do I will
say is like the amount of doubting that we do,
like sometimes it does get confirmed, Like I doubt that
we would go through a whole episode without an ad
And here we are, all right, you doubting debies. Let's
go into the third part of this, right, So let's
(05:18):
imagine that the commenter we're talking about doubting, right, how
we can't doubt all day and all this stuff. So
let's imagine the commenter even meant the definition of skepticism
that we offered at the beginning of this, and that
the suggestion is that you can't walk around being critical
of things. Okay, to that, I would say that is
how I go about my day. I know that Abraham
goes about his day like that too. I'm pretty critical
(05:39):
of everything, not in a really terrible way or like
a mean way, or not a criticize it. We're thinking
about criticizing. I'm thinking about stuff exactly. And so, like anything,
it's a habit, it's a practice. You practice this skill
over and over and over again, and it's a muscle
you strengthen with repetition.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Right, You do this often.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And you and then it comes you become fluent in it.
It's very natural for you to go Huh, I wonder
why they chose that book cover, or huh, I wonder
why that piece of music is arranged the way it is,
Why didn't extend it another measure, or like it's one
of those things where you're kind of already doing that
when you're thinking about things.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, you're just thinking about things.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I would actually argue that even a lot, if
not most people walk around being at least somewhat skeptical.
The majority of the time. We don't see a tree
move and assume it was a ghost. We don't see
rainfall and assume it was caused by a wizard. We
don't avoid getting into our cars because we don't avoid
getting to our cars because we fear that a basilisk
(06:40):
is waiting inside, ready to turn us to stone with
its gaze. Like, we generally go about our days interacting
as effectively as we can, which means we're being a
skeptical and we're operating pretty effectively. So I think that
not only is it the case that we can't, I
not only think that it's wrong to say we can't
go about our day just being skeptical all day. I think,
(07:00):
for a lot of the day, a lot of us
do just very naturally go about our day being at
least a little bit skeptical of things all day long.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, what fantasy novel were you reading when you wrote
that specific bullet point, because I feel like.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I was thinking about Harry Potter. But yes, yes, but
I was not actually reading Harry Potter. I was just
thinking about it, just thinking about maybe it was maybe
it's you die, or your pet not turned to stone,
or you're petrified like you, I don't know, I remember
what it does.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
But no, no you turn no, no, no, you're right, no,
I it's then it was all very accurate. I was
just like wizards some dosed and basilisks, like that's pretty accurate.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So that feels good. I was thinking of Harry Potter.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But yeah, I saw a great interview the other day
that did say that, like it like, why do they
celebrate Christmas? Because if they celebrated Christmas, that would make
them think that Jesus was this all powerful thing. But
in the hot in the Wizarding World, Jesus would be
a terrible wizard. Like you show up at Hogwarts and go,
look here's I turned this water into wine, and everybody's like, yeah,
get in line, that's potions one oh one.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You know, yeah we did that. No, we did that
in pre wizard school.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, come on, like you had. That was the test
you had to pass to get in here. Anyway, Not
only can you walk around being skeptical all day, we
would argue that it's actually better to do this. It's
better to think deeply about things and critically about things,
and take an idea and turning around in your head
and understanding all the angles of it. Like, that's a
good thing. It's good to reflect on your own cognitive biases.
(08:25):
It's good to reflect on your own cognition and like
think about your thinking even, like it's good to deconstruct
arguments that are meant to manipulate you. It's good to
question the answer. And all of these are skills that
benefit us and lead us to success. It leads us
to be more emotionally intelligent people. It leads us to
be more generally intelligent people. It leads us to be
more compassionate people when we can think about circumstances and
(08:47):
think about things in different ways. So, yes, we should
be skeptical about things. We should be critical about things,
we should think through problem solving all day because it
makes us better thinkers and better humans in general.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yes, so, yeah, exactly that.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Not only is it the argument being like, you can't
walk around being skeptical all day like most people do
a version of that already, some of us do it
a lot more and all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And not only can you, but I think that we should. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I think that their argument is wrong. Agreed, And if
you would like to disagree with me about that, listener,
then you can email us at info atwwdwwdpodcast dot com.
You can also agree with me if you want. I'm
perfectly good with that. You can also reach us on
the social media platforms. If you would like to support
what we do on the show, then you can reach
us directly. I told you that by emailing us, but
you can also reach us on the social media platforms.
(09:35):
If you like to support us directly, you can join
us on Patreon. There you'll get bonus content, ad free content,
extra goodies, and I will read your name on the
episodes like subscribe, tell a friends.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
But I think those are the things.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Is there anything you would like to add or anything
that I forgot before we wrap up this mini in
an appropriate amount of time.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I think that covers it. I cannot believe we did
an episode in ten minutes.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
That was amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Go forth and be skeptical everybody. Why we do what
we do?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Mini is out.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
HI.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You can learn more about this and other episodes by
going to WWD WWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening,
and we hope you have an awesome day
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