“The ability to change your mind is a super power.” Ray Dalio

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By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.

Reading time:  4 mins

Changing my mind used to feel draining / bad, like admitting I was wrong. But I’ve decided changing your mind when the circumstances make sense is one of the best feelings there is. IMO it’s not embarrassing to change your mind, it’s embarrassing to be wrong and stick with it!

You shouldn't have an opinion on everything; but you can't have an opinion on nothing if you want to try and improve the world.

  • IMO one key hack to a good life is to try and find a way to improve the world for them to work on doing this (eg improving education). 

  • For the place you are trying to improve the world IMO you need to have an opinion on what to do... but it's not ok not to change your opinion if facts / circumstances / etc change and necessitate it. 

    • "When events change, I change my mind. What do you do?

    • When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

    • When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?

    • When someone persuades me that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do?" Keynes

  • Changing mind levels… or levels of levelling up:

    • L0: no opinion

    • L1: not yet confident enough to know what your opinion is but doing the work to build an opinion

    • L2: have an opinion and reasons to justify

    • L3: openly change your opinion and explain why

    • L4: can map the history of what your opinion has been and why it has changed over time. 

  • IMO we need to celebrate changing our opinions. 

    • "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." Churchill 

    • “If you want to be right often, you need to change your mind often.”

The ability to change your mind is a super power. Understanding how and when to change your mind is superlative.

  • We’ve gone from public hangings to euthanasia in less than 100 years. If that isn’t ‘changing your mind’ then i’m not sure what is. 

  • IMO a prerequisite to be a politician should be explaining 2x+ important things you’ve changed your mind about and why. 

  • IMO a prerequisite to doing a good job in white-collar work is changing your mind when the circumstances mean it makes sense. 

  • We want pragmatists (find what works and do it), not ideologues - blog link. 

  • Categories of changing viewpoint and the emotional feel:

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  • Quote inspiration: 

  • Expect the unexpected. 

  • “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes

  • “Any year that you don't destroy one of your best-loved ideas is probably a wasted year.” - Charlie Munger.

  • "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - Einstein

  • IMO the core foundation to a good life is the closest possible understanding of reality. For your understanding of reality is what everything else is built upon. If you have a poor understanding of reality it’s like your decisions are built on a foundation of quicksand. 

    • If this is the case then any viewpoint update that is moving closer to reality should feel good. 

    • IMO one wants to celebrate any move closer to reality and normalise public changing of view points. You get exactly the behaviour you celebrate. 

    • As such hopefully how all viewpoint updates should feel if moving closer to reality? 

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If you only take away one thing

  • Changing your mind isn’t something to be ashamed of. Done for the right reasons, changing your mind is something to be proud of.