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The received wisdom (ironically) is "think for yourself". But isn't that arrogant? You are fallible. Why should you assume you are smarter (or at least less fallible) than everyone else?
I propose the following way of reconciling the advice "think for yourself" with the view that you are no smarter than everyone else. It rests on three difficulties that people have:
First, people don't understand why they themselves do things. As of this writing, the going hypothesis among cognitive scientists is that people are mere automatons, following an algorithm -- but that we don't know (and can't learn via mere introspection) what that algorithm is. From the difficulty of A.I., we see that we don't know how to program a computer to make good decisions -- because we don't know how we ourselves do it.*
The second difficulty is language. Even when we understand something, it is often difficut to transmit that to other people. We may be able to transmit simple advice -- 'I think you should do that' -- but it's hard to transmit the system of thinking that led us to that conclusion.
The third difficulty is in putting yourself in others' shoes. The mysterious decision-making machinery in our heads can't be completely engaged just by imagining that you are in a given situation -- it only comes fully into play when you think you actually are in that situation.
So, if other people were in your position, if they knew what you knew and stood to lose or gain what you stand to lose or gain, they might see things differently.
It's not that you're smarter than them. It's that you're the only one in your particular circumstance. Surely if they were in your place they could do as good or better than you. But they're not, and they cannot transmit to you the decision-making system that they would employ if they were.
P.S. These are some of the reasons that apprenticeship is (much) better than reading. The mentor may not be able to write down an algorithm to tell you how to think like them; but it's easier to watch you trying and to point out when they think you are screwing up. Unfortunately for the reasons given above, you can only rely on their advice for situations that are rather "objective", that is, independent of personal circumstance, and in which the mentor can (and spends the time to) assess the situation first-hand.
