SkillsSkill 2 of 5
Show judgment, including about AI
Worked example
Tell me about a time you changed your mind.
Tests: you test your own belief, use a fair comparison, and say plainly when you were wrong.
Amazon’s “Are Right, A Lot” principle: “They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.” (Amazon, opens the source) Nov 9, 2026
The question
Maya is an operations analyst at a 120-store grocery chain: 40 high-volume stores and 80 low-volume. She and every number here are invented.
| Before | After | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 stores that added self-checkout | 1.8% | 2.4% | +0.6 pts |
| 10 similar stores without it | 1.8% | 2.3% | +0.5 pts |
Invented figures. Both groups were rising in the same season.
“Tell me about a time you changed your mind.”
Your turn
Say your answer out loud, or jot notes below. Both work. Or skip to the worked answer.
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The shape of a strong answer
- What you believed
- Why you believed it
- The test you ran
- What the evidence said
- What you did about it
A strong answer, step by step
Open each step in turn. This is one strong answer, not the only one.
Step 1: Say what you believed
“I was sure our new self-checkout lanes were driving up shrink. At the 10 stores that added them, it rose from 1.8% to 2.4% of sales, and I’d drafted a recommendation to remove them.”
Why it works: An honest, specific starting belief.
Step 2: Look for evidence against it
“Before sending it, I compared 10 similar stores without self-checkout over the same quarter. Their shrink rose too, from 1.8% to 2.3%.”
Why it works: A fair comparison, not just the numbers that agree.
Step 3: Read the result honestly
“The lanes explained 0.1 points of a 0.6-point rise: 0.6 − 0.5. Most of it was seasonal.”
Why it works: Arithmetic, not a feeling.
Step 4: Change course, out loud
“I withdrew the recommendation and told the director I’d been wrong, and why. We kept the lanes and looked at the seasonal pattern instead.”
Why it works: Says “I was wrong” and acts on it.
The answer, in short
- Decision
- Withdrew my own recommendation to remove self-checkout.
- Because
- Shrink rose 0.6 points with the lanes and 0.5 points without them; the lanes explained 0.1 points.
- What would change it
- If the gap between the two groups had kept growing over a second quarter, I’d have reopened it.
Common traps
- A story where you were right all along.
- No comparison group.
- Changing your mind quietly.
- Calling it “new information” instead of “I was wrong”.
Weak vs strong
“I initially had some concerns about self-checkout, but after more analysis we decided to keep it.”
Fails all four checks: no clear belief, no test, no numbers, and no admission.
“I was sure the lanes caused it. A comparison showed they explained 0.1 points of 0.6, so I told the director I was wrong.”
Check your answer
- Did I state what I believed?
- Did I test it against a fair comparison?
- Did I give the numbers?
- Did I say I was wrong, to whom?
Practice judgment out loud with follow-up questions → Socratify
Last reviewed Nov 9, 2026