It is not enough to find reasons to believe the things you already believe. Everyone already does that, and in doing so are unexceptional. When someone holds beliefs that disagree with yours, you must remember that just as you feel you have every reason to feel justified in your beliefs, so do they. If you want to actually hold true beliefs, instead of just satisfying your internal curiosity, you must approach every new hypothesis with the eyes of a novice; you must not allow your own perspective to tint your understanding of the new perspective. If you come to understand how another person came about their own beliefs, as opposed to simply finding a reason to discard them as soon as possible, you will be more likely to notice if the new belief is better than your current. The more of such beliefs you gather, the closer to understanding reality (i.e. having true beliefs) you will come. The first hypothesis you come across is enough to satisfy your curiosity; the choice is yours as to whether you set up camp there, or keep hiking to the summit! In general, the easier it is for you to recognize when a new theory has merit, the faster your climb will be. We tend to hold onto our beliefs, and feel a substantial amount of discomfort when they are challenged; this is folly! If your explanation for the world is incomplete, you should desire to cast it away with great haste! This is more difficult than it sounds, and we are particularly bad at it. We tell ourselves we are seriously considering alternative perspectives, but then end up finding reasons to keep the beliefs we already have. You must fight this urge with all your might, if you actually want to hold true beliefs! The universe does not care how difficult it is to give up a belief. The universe does not care if all the evidence you happened to be exposed to led you to the wrong perspective. The universe does not give partial credit for correctness. If you make one mistake in your model of physics, then your rocket blows up on its way to the moon. If you make but a single error in your calculation of water pressure, your submarine implodes and you die a horrible death. The bar is set ridiculously high, and if you want to get there, you must not let something so simple as an inability to admit you were wrong stop you.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 10:47:41 +0000
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