There are times where being skeptical pays of. There are other times where it's useful to have a low bar of accepting new information. When a startup CEO goes pitching to investors he has to project confidence. On the other hand there are times in his business when it's very useful to think critically about the assumptions the business makes.
The important thing is to have behavior that makes sense in a particular context.
I have this belief that humility is a part of good critical thinking, and that egoism undermines it. I imagine arrogance as a kind of mind-death. But I have no evidence, and no good mechanism by which it might be true. In fact, I know the belief is suspect because I know that I want it to be true — I want to be able to assure myself that this or that intolerable academic will be magically punished with a decreased capacity to do good work. The truth could be the opposite: maybe hubris breeds confidence, and confidence results? After all, some of the most important thinkers in history were insufferable.
Is any link, positive or negative, between arrogance and reasoning too tenuous to be worth entertaining? Is humility a pretty word or a valuable habit? I don't know what I think yet. Do you?