When was the last time you changed your mind about something important? As children we changed our minds frequently since we were continually exposed to new experiences. We’re encouraged to learn new things and consider different ideas. Change is good.
But somewhere in adulthood we find a career, or a circle of friends, and the rate of change slows. We seek familiarity and consistency. We settle in to past positions and spend more time defending our old beliefs rather than exploring for better ones. There is infinite knowledge out there, but we give up on growing at mid-life and settle into stasis and a love for the sloth of the status quo.
William James said “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” It’s easy to fake due diligence with confirmation bias, and lie to ourselves that we’ve vetted new ideas. As social creatures there is great pressure for us not to change our minds and not to keep learning. We get better and better at ignoring the many wise people who believe something different than we do, forgetting that progress will often feel different and strange, at least at first.
Emerson wrote the famous line “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” but few people know the entire quote:
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.
Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”
Scott Adams published a list of when he changed his mind about certain beliefs:
Age 8: Superman, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny
Age 11: God, Angels. Miracles. Money isn’t important for happiness
20s: Reincarnation, Ghosts, People are mostly rational, Unquestioned patriotism is a good thing
….
Regardless of what you think of the specific items on his list, it seems a great exercise to make a list like this of our own.
When was the last time you changed your mind? What do you do to keep foolish consistency at bay?