Holding Opposing Ideas

Doing the work required to hold an opinion means you can argue against yourself better than others can. Only then can you say, “I can hold this view because I can’t find anyone else who can argue better against my view.”
The ability to destroy your ideas rapidly instead of slowly when the occasion is right is one of the most valuable things. You ha... See more

Despite us all wanting the world to be fair, meaning that hard work (execution) is the explanation we tend to gravitate towards naturally, having good new ideas that nobody’s ever had is actually very hard, is never guaranteed, and benefits from:KnowledgeIntelligenceNon-conformityTime to thinkCriticism of your ideasPart of the challenge is that the... See more

Very few issues worthy of debate are black and white. That’s why we need to grapple with the gray areas of life, of which there are many. It’s always tempting to reduce issues to binary choices between right and wrong, good and evil, beneficial and destructive. But it’s ultimately self-defeating; binary thinking discourages complex reasoning while ... See more

Have a contrarian point of view. Traits of a top-tier contrarian view:

• People can disagree with it, like the thesis of a persuasive essay. It’s debatable.


• Something you truly believe and can advocate for. Before future investors, customers, and team members do, you have to have personal conviction in it. And you have to believe people will be better

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There's another trait on the side which I want to talk about; that trait is ambiguity. It took me a while to discover its importance. Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can ste... See more

people are not very good at dealing with grey areas. for something to be argumentative, the idea should be expressed in extreme opposites. the middle is not to be talked about. so the logic is the same too, in logic, this is called the excluded middle.

"If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your ... See more