Your ego will defend you even when you’re guilty. Don’t hire it as your lawyer.

Your pride is good at one job: building the case for you, regardless of the facts. It works fast, it sounds reasonable, and it never asks whether you deserve the defense. The trouble is that a defense lawyer is the wrong person to ask whether you did it. What you need after a mistake is somebody interested in the truth rather than the verdict.

When you catch yourself assembling arguments at speed, treat the speed itself as the signal. Put the case down and ask a plainer question: what part of this is mine. Then answer it in one sentence, without the evidence.