Figure out what you think before you check what everyone else thinks.

Once you have seen the room’s verdict you cannot unsee it. Your own reaction gets quietly edited to sit nearer the consensus, and it happens so smoothly that you will later swear the edited version is what you thought all along. Going first, even privately, is the only way to find out what you actually believe.

Next time something happens, keep the replies closed until you have one sentence of your own. A film, a match, a news story, a decision at home. Then go and read everything. Changing your mind afterwards is fine; never having had one is the loss.