One of my favourite podcasts is Freakonomics - the show that explores the "hidden side of everything". Host, Steven Dubner, regularly asks his guests this question:
"What is something that you believed to be true for a long time, until you found out you were wrong?"
I love this question. I love their reaction to it. His guests are floored by it, left searching around for an answer. Being comprehensively wrong, finding that out and changing our minds as a result, is not something we like to think about. But we should. Seeking out new information, and then being able to understand our mistakes, learn and improve, is a key skill. Something to be proud of.
In his book The Inevitable, Kevin Kelly talks about the forces that are shaping our future. He also talks about his personal experience of believing something to be true until he found out he was wrong. That something was his firm belief in the complete impossibility of creating a crowdsourced encyclopedia. "Wikipedia is impossible," he says, "but here it is".
For me - well I used to think that most abilities were innate. That yes, you had to work to be good at something, but that you were born with the talent that made it possible. You were good at maths, but terrible at languages; good at tennis but terrible at chess. Reading the work of Anders Ericsson on the power of deliberate practice, and then of Carol Dweck on fixed and growth mindsets made me realise that I was wrong.
The world is changing a rapid pace. The coming of artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and blockchain driven economies will bring social changes we didn't think were possible. The key to not just surviving, but thriving, in the coming decades is being able to change your mind.
So - what is something that you believed to be true for a long time, until you found out you were wrong? Let me know in the comments.
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It's certainly a good question, and one I'm not sure I have an answer for. Perhaps its been a little something here and then a something there that tipped certain beliefs or preconceptions upside down. :)
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