Changing Your Mind - by Deb Liu - Perspectives

We have a strange relationship with changing our minds. Whenever someone admits they’ve changed their views, we call them a flip-flopper. We call them indecisive or wishy-washy. We might even call them a hypocrite. But why? When information changes, isn’t the best course of action to change along with it? Why do we value being so fixed in our point of view that we’re unable to see and process new data? When someone does this, we say they’re “sticking to their guns” or “being confident in their beliefs,” but in reality, it’s simple stubbornness. It’s obstinacy. That’s not something to be praised. I recently told somebody I had changed my mind about something we’d discussed in the past. I explained why I used to think what I thought, and then shared how I had updated my point of view thanks to his insight and that of others. He appreciated that I proactively brought it up and acknowledged how he had persuaded me. I think he’d gotten used to shouting into the wind, not knowing what actual

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• Michael Frew