Sarah Perry: What is your worst intellectual habit?

Originally asked

Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017

Vox's fixed 9 Questions format asks this verbatim across respondents.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Sarah Perry said elsewhere, not written here

I’ve a deplorable tendency to become entrenched in my own prejudices: If I dislike an artist, an art form, or an idea (jazz, ballet, certain kinds of fiction) it is extremely difficult to get me to change my mind, and all evidence presented to the contrary will be discarded and very likely mocked. Of course, nobody suffers but me.

Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 26 August 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

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Henry Rollins Musician, writer and broadcaster

Rushing to judgment. Looking for the bad in someone else before anything else.

Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, "9 questions" series, 8 April 2017 source ↗

Fareed Zakaria Journalist and author; host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS

Wasting time reading blogs, magazines, newspapers. They have their place but they can become an addiction. And the real ways to gain understanding about issues are reading books and traveling.

Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 20 May 2017 source ↗

Dominique Dawes Olympic gymnast; three-time Olympian and gold medallist

My worst intellectual habit has to be overanalyzing everything. I do it all the time, because there are too many options in this world.

Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 24 June 2017 source ↗

Celeste Ng Novelist

I don’t believe anything is black and white, so I’m always searching for nuance. On the whole I think this is a positive thing, but it also means I almost never give an unqualified answer.

Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 5 August 2017 source ↗