Strong Opinions, Loosely Held
It's important to have strong convictions on few important things. But it's also equally important to have a loose grip on it so that in the presence of updated facts and findings, it would be easier for you to change your mind.
The Philippine elections are over and for the past three months I have witnessed how people voiced out their opinions on crucial topics. And with how our society is set up today and how connected we are, it's not that difficult to encounter someone with a totally different point of view. While some of it were productive discussions, a lot of it were borderline uncivilized behavior that disappointingly resorted to threats and name-calling. On all sides.
It is an ineffective way of persuading people, which is crucial, if not the biggest aspect of the game.
This reminded me of an amazing article written by Paul Graham titled How To Disagree. In this article, he provided a heirarchy of ways on how to disagree with people. This suggests that in order to effectively argue, one must aspire on refuting the central point of the argument and not to cheaply resort to name-calling.
However, I understand that it's not that easy. You could be as objective as possible while having disagreement with someone but things still won't go anywhere. Even in the presence of facts and evidences, some people just won't change their minds. This is the case especially when an opinion has been held for a long time and has already been a part of someone's identity. Even a reasonable counter-argument would seem like a personal attack.
The other day, I came across the phrase "strong opinions, loosely held" and I found it really beautiful and it resonated with me. I did changed my mind on a lot of things these past few years and I aspire to continually practice this mental model. This is crucial if you want to keep the things you believe in grounded on facts and not based on outdated or wrong assumptions.
It's important to have strong convictions on few important things. But it's also equally important to have a loose grip on it so that in the presence of updated facts and findings, it would be easier for you to change your mind. Because in the end, it is more important to get things right rather than proving to be right.