Do you have the mindset of a soldier or scout?
Check out this TED Talk by Julia Galef!
Here’s the description to whet your appetite:
Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs. Are you a soldier, prone to defending your viewpoint at all costs—or a scout, spurred by curiosity?
When your steadfast opinions are tested, Galef asks: “What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?”
I’m not sure the history lesson is compelling, but I find the ideas behind it fascinating!
And from Julia’s website:
Starting from the premise that every human being is at least a little wrong about many things that matter—in our careers, or about health, science, politics, our self-image, and more—we should in theory be updating our views frequently as we learn more about the world.
In practice, however, our opinions ossify.
For me, this is completely aligned with my grandfather’s wisdom that the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.
Perhaps this realization and the humility it brings as we continuously increase in knowledge provides the necessary momentum to overcome the natural ossification of our opinions.
-D
