Changing Opinions – Day 1

30-Day Writing Challenge

The mind is a funny thing – it’s always changing. 

In the past, I’ve pictured people that change their minds often as wishy-washy, flaky, or not certain… This assumption is wrong. I, like many of you, lacked the context to know that very intelligent and reflective people change their minds all the time. They’re anything but “flaky” – What’s happening is that each person changes their mind as more information comes in… The fancy term for this is “Bayes’ theorem”. 

The information they’re taking in is usually from external places (e.g. books, conversations, research, experiences, etc.) and if it’s good, they’ll happily change their minds. 

My opinion on changing opinions has changed… That’s a mouth full.

But what happens when you change your mind with very little to no external input (e.g. books, conversations, etc.)? Does that label someone as “flaky” or uncertain? Probably… 

Throughout this COVID situation, I’ve changed my mind multiple times with very little input from other places. But I have a hypothesis… Since I’ve had more time to reflect on my opinions in certain areas, I’ve realized most (if not all), are based on false assumptions. 

This constant change started out very concerning and I began to doubt my perspective on the world. After a few weeks of internal psychological battles, I’ve slowly convinced myself that this change is a burden that’s been lifted. 

My opinion, belief, or understanding is always going to be wrong or skewed… The name of the game is to become a little less wrong over time and accept the fact that the world is not black or white, 1 or 0, true or false, but a spectrum of information…