He said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn't think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It's perfectly healthy - encouraged, even - to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.
He's observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.
(Via Signal v. Noise)
I was talking yesterday morning with a young new hire. She asked me how I share my opinions with people, the implication being that I do it in an atypical way compared to most Japanese. I talked on a bit, I hope not too long, but in my musings I covered essentially the above.
This was also something we talked about a lot on the late, lamented PVC Security podcast.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary.
Mind Like Water, indeed.
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