How so? I find it interesting to see how people frame and rationalize ideas that I dislike or disagree with.
And I’ve been very stubborn in the past. The biggest struggle was being able to accept being wrong in public. It’s much easier to have a ‘holy shit’ moment in private!
- we are not talking about a blank slate, we are talking specifically about position X in this very specific path from an animal to.... something
we cannot judge others without remembering their entire upbringing and the fact that to operate we need to use rules of thumb as there is not enough processing power in the universe to do it any other way.
Really trying to accept this helps me take number 4 there to a very real place where i absolve myself of being "right" and focus on "trying to improve things and give an honest account of the results to help us all move forward".
Thinking of this in terms of others ideologies - we cannot logically think through what is right or wrong, so we NEED people to believe "wrong" things as we develop / evolve to ensure we are correct. negative testing is tedious but very very important.
I this value in trying "provably" wrong things is a real part of what causes us to be who we are (e.g. it could be partially responsible for stubbornness and counter culture for example)
1. Invest more energy into trying to falsify your favored beliefs than into confirming them.
2. Embrace humility, since we're always wrong sometimes. Humility to me means: you can have convictions, but you should never assume that people who disagree with you are stupid or evil.
I’d add two other ideas that I try to adhere to, continuing your list.
3. Try to adopt the perspectives of those you disagree with, especially when you’re finding yourself ascribing malice, stupidity, moral failing, or just find yourself baffled by someone. Such feelings are often a sign that you don’t understand where someone is coming from, and though you may still disagree with them, you’ll have a better platform to discuss matters.
4. Try to see yourself and your time through the same lens you use to look back on history. We’re not special or unique, we’re goinf to be seen as primitives eventually, and it can be helpful to imagine in which ways that perception might be levied.
Both of these help to broaden perspective and depend empathy, while also divorcing yourself from a strict “first person view” or tribal view. It’s also a couple of concrete steps to gain some distance from your feelings in the present, which makes your steps easier to achieve. You’ll also find that the people you end up despising form a much smaller pool than most.