[cakoose]

> Cargo-cult thinking means only looking for, and only accepting, confirming evidence.

This article's definition of cargo-cult thinking seems incorrect. The definition I'm familiar with: when you lack a true understanding of some idea and end up just mimicking the superficial qualities. It's a great metaphor that comes up all the time in software engineering.

For example, seeing a successful system that uses microservices and thinking that switching your system to microservices will make it successful. If you don't understand exactly what the tradeoffs are and why those tradeoffs worked well for the successful system, you're not going to get the result you want.

Maybe the author confused "cargo-cult thinking" with just plain "cult-like thinking"?

[ActivePattern]

Yeah, that's closer to the definition I'm familiar with. It's a species of "correlation does not imply causation".

What the author is talking about here seems to be how to recognize and avoid confirmation bias.