My wife and I were chatting about how to keep an open mind as we get older. We’ve seen enough people slowly close themselves off to new ideas that we have cause for concern.
It’s not an age thing, though. It’s a sign that you’ve switched from being curious and wanting to learn to considering yourself an expert and wanting to show people what you know. Maybe you’ve taken a class or read a very convincing article. Maybe you’ve acquired years of experience in a field. Whatever it is, it comes back to knowing.
I’m not a big fan of knowing. Once you decide you know something, you stop thinking about it, and that can happen at any time in your life.
It’s something I fight with all the time. As I gain more experience and knowledge, arguments and ideas start to feel familiar. I start to categorize them. And because I feel like I already know what those arguments are, I start to ignore them.
I think the trick is to keep listening to the arguments you disagree with. Look for subtle points you didn’t notice before. Keep your mind tuned to look for new ideas. But know that you don’t have to give every argument the same weight as the knowledge you’ve acquired over time.
There’s a subtle balance you have to strike between having confidence in your own thinking and staying open to new ideas. Not every idea is worth pondering too long. Some really bad ideas have been floating around for a long, long time. As you become familiar with those, you can feel free to dismiss them — for the most part.
