Changing your mind

[Martha]

People are very resistant to changing their minds and tend to justify decisions once made, ignoring, rationalizing or misinterpreting contrary evidence. This website has an interesting collection of stories of where people changed their minds.

The World Question Center 2008

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?"[/FONT]​

 

[haha]

People are very resistant to changing their minds and tend to justify decisions once made, ignoring, rationalizing or misinterpreting contrary evidence. This website has an interesting collection of stories of where people changed their minds.

The World Question Center 2008

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?[/FONT]​

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Science is based on evidence. What happens when the data change? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind?"[/FONT]​

I change my mind about many things all the time. I consider most things that I "know" to be only provisionally accepted. This is not a great trait for normal day to day business, as confidence in one's decisions tends to play well with other people. As an example, in spite of successfully pulling off a number of things, I am almost never asked for advice. I don't think I look particularly stupid; rather I think it is just that I never seem to "know" anything.

Ha

Ha

 

[cantlogin]

That’s a fascinating collection of essays! I have a long way to go before I can say that I have read all of them.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I change my mind about many things all the time. I consider most things that I "know" to be only provisionally accepted. This is not a great trait for normal day to day business, as confidence in one's decisions tends to play well with other people. As an example, in spite of successfully pulling off a number of things, I am almost never asked for advice. I don't think I look particularly stupid; rather I think it is just that I never seem to "know" anything.

I've evolved (regressed?) to the point that I consider most important values, decisions, and preferences to be probabilistic, not solid and specific. You arrive at decisions and beliefs based on the "best" information and value-system available to you at the time, but we all know that things change.

The hard part is changing your opinion when the reasons for your original stance change enough to warrant doing so.

It's a framework that lets me feel comfortable about having made the "right" decision even when it turns out to be wrong (I figuratively bet on a full house and the opponent had a straight flush - right decision, undesired result, but no regrets about betting).

At least that's the theory. Real life: I waiver, cling, and do all the other "human" screw-ups as often and the next person, I suppose. Somehow it all works out pretty well most of the time.