What if I’m wrong?
There’s an article in this week’s FT Weekend on the “seven intellectual habits of the best thinkers”. All seven habits are sensible, but number six was the most powerful reminder: Always assume you might be wrong. The author of the article, Simon Kuper, adds:
Mediocre thinkers prefer to confirm their initial assumptions. This “confirmation bias” stops them reaching new or deeper insights. By contrast, Darwin was always composing arguments against his own theories.
How different would the world be—in particular, the world of social media debate—if we were all practicing this habit?