Last Updated on April 13, 2021
One thing that I find strange in our society is that we tend to punish people for changing their minds, or updating their beliefs. Credibility is often completely lost when you change your mind. An extreme example is in politics. Politicians are derided and accused of flip-flopping if they every change their minds on anything of any size over any time period. I accept that we need our politicians to do what they say they’ll do, but I don’t think they should be punished too much if an old tape turns up showing that they had a different view on an issue back in college!
This punishment for changing your mind or updating your beliefs is at odds with the value of self development and personal growth. Personal growth can directly lead to new opinions or beliefs about things. Yet as a society we don’t seem to have much dissonance with valuing personal growth but at the same time not allowing people to change their minds?
Let others change their minds
Let’s all give each other permission to grow and update beliefs, and with that, change our minds. Let others grow. Give them space to learn and develop new thoughts.
Also on a related note, it’s worth staying aware that others are multifaceted, as are you. If you don’t like certain aspects of a persons personality or behaviors, it doesn’t mean you have to dislike all aspects.
All opinions subject to change
This is a favorite personal tagline of mine that I use to proudly caveat that I might update my opinions over time. Read more about this in my post on Bayes Rule.