Victim Of Confirmation Bias!

A couple of days ago, I was assigned an X task and it needs to be finished within a day or two. It wasn’t an insurmountable problem but there were a lot of things to alter. Just after the sprint planning, I discussed with one of my colleagues about the approach of solving that task. At that time, one solution popped into my brain out of nowhere and I was continuously seeking evidence to support that solution.

Later, while trying to solve the problem, my solutions were only centered on that approach which had struck me since the beginning. I don’t know it was consciously or subconsciously but I was focusing more on that approach. I was not able to think about other ways to solve the problem. I discovered around two to three solutions confirming my previous theory, tried them and had to revert it back because it didn’t work. I felt so pressurized and exasperated at the same time. It was taking much time to solve, which is why I asked for help from my team members. A small technical discussion meeting was organized and I put my problem and my approach there. At that time too I was flexing about my previous approach. One of the team members proposed a solution that was too damn simple. (Might be hindsight bias) This is the reason why I had to suppose the task as X (LOL), instead of mentioning the real problem.

But my brain constantly fooled me for several days. I know it’s hard to refrain oneself from being fooled though. At the time of writing this article, I remember one great quote by famous American Physicist, Richard Feynman which goes like this.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

Throughout the day, I was cursing myself for not being able to tackle the problem myself. But, it is not an easy task to go against the natural thinking process. We theorize the ideas and collect evidence in order to corroborate them. That’s what I did and that’s how the brain actually works. I was the victim of confirmation bias, though the damage it did was not substantial. Imagine what catastrophe it can cause in real life if we didn’t start thinking about it?