Nobody gets smarter by only talking to people who already agree with them.

CREATIVITY

WHAT THIS MEANS

Agreement is pleasant and it teaches you nothing, because nothing in it tests whether you are right. Spending all your time among people who share your view means your reasons never get examined, so you end up holding firm opinions you have never had to defend. Thinking sharpens against something harder than itself, and comfortable company is not that.

Find one person who sees something differently and ask them why, with the aim of understanding rather than replying. Do not try to win. See whether you can state their reasoning well enough that they would recognise it as theirs.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Who in your life reliably disagrees with you, and do you listen?

MORE IN LEARNING & CURIOSITY

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