All opinions expressed in the blog are solely mine.
“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.” - Leo Tolstoy
We'd rather believe we're right than be right.
James Clear lays out an argument. We're tribal.
"The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker put it this way, “People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true.”
We know experimentally that when peers say that a line is longer than another, even if we know it's shorter, we 'see' the line longer.
Early on in Officer Indoctrination School, we purchased Navy "blues" which are black. Once we believed black was blue, anything was possible.
How can we encourage people to hear each other? Philosopher Alain de Botton opined, "For all the large-scale political solutions which have been proposed to salve ethnic conflict, there are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force them to eat supper together.”
Thus the high value team-building action of pasta parties or pizza nights.
Whether it's volleyball or veganism, approach it as a scientist not a preacher, prosecutor, or politician.
- Be curious.
- Be open-minded.
- Be literate (read).
- Be aware of bias.
- Be committed to search for better ideas.
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