I wonder how much benefit we'd get, then, by imagining ourselves in all our internal dialogues to be speaking to someone very critical, and far smarter than us?
Probably not very, because we can't actually imagine what that hypothetical person would say to us. It'd probably end up used as a way to affirm your positions by only testing strong points.
While I have difficulty imagining what someone far smarter than myself would say, what I can do is imagine explaining myself to a smart person who doesn't have my particular set of biases and hangups; and I find that does sometimes help.
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July Part 1