Willing to be wrong…

“My opinion is a view I hold…well, until I find something that changes it.”

Luigi Pirandello

Someone once imparted some great wisdom to me with this phrase. “I am always willing to be wrong, I just need someone to help prove it to me.” I grabbed on to that as a core operating tenet and have found it incredibly powerful over the years.

Willing to be wrong means that you are willing to change your mind, it doesn’t meant that you will. Willing to be wrong means that you will seek to find opinions and perspectives that challenge your opinion, not seek out those that only reinforce what you believe. Willing to be wrong means that you will focus on the issue, not the person. Willing to be wrong implies debate, not argument. Willing to be wrong means that you are willing to listen.

Are you willing?

The informed opinion…

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”

Harlan Ellison

Why do you believe what you believe? Do you believe something because you know it through experience and learning or simply because you want to believe it? More importantly, do you spend your time learning things that reinforce the opinion you already have or do you try and understand both sides of an issue before forming an opinion? It is my experience that many seek to learn and reinforce that which they want to believe. This is just ignorance by another name. To truly be informed one must be well-rounded and invest the time to really understand. Otherwise you are just a heretic with an opinion…

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dusty