Notice When You're Rationalizing vs. Actually Reasoning

Reasoning works forward: you look at evidence and follow it to a conclusion. Rationalizing works backward: you start with a conclusion and search for evidence to support it. The tricky part is that both feel the same from the inside. A useful test: if you already know where you'll land before you start thinking, you're probably rationalizing. Honest reasoning means being genuinely willing to arrive somewhere unexpected.