Everybody Knows

I've noticed that many people today are not open to changing their minds. They decide something is true or false, often based on what their equally unknowing friends think, and that's that. If new information comes along, they stick with the old decision and dismiss the new information with terms like "fake news" and "lies" and "propaganda." 

I've been a scientific person all my life. I follow the science. To do that, you must keep an open mind, because science is all about what we know today, but tomorrow, next week, or next year, science may make a new discovery that changes what we know today. We have to be able to change our minds quickly if we want to stay on top of what is real.

Jason Fried said of Jeff Bezos:

"He said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy — encouraged, even — to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today."

And...

"He’s observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking."

And...

"What trait signified someone who was wrong a lot of the time? Someone obsessed with details that only support one point of view. If someone can’t climb out of the details, and see the bigger picture from multiple angles, they’re often wrong most of the time."

Tim Cook said of Steve Jobs:

"He would flip on something so fast that you would forget that he was the one taking the 180 degree polar opposite position the day before. I saw it daily. This is a gift, because things do change, and it takes courage to change. It takes courage to say, ‘I was wrong.’ I think he had that."

We can all learn something from very successful people. Yet, it appears that very few of us are willing to do that. We stick with what we know, because that's the comfortable position, and we never have to admit we were wrong. But revolutions aren't made by sticking with what "everybody" knows.