Jeff Bezos has several famous concepts that I love. Regret minimization is my favorite and one that I filter my decisions through.
The other one, which is the theme for today, is the title of this post – “Strong opinions, loosely held”
It’s the idea that you can have strong opinions but you are able to accept new information and change that opinion. You believe something until the data tells you otherwise.
It’s also the theme of our first post, which is about five ideas that Jonathan Clements has changed his mind about:
On Second Thought [Jonathan Clements on Humble Dollar] – “3. Money buys limited happiness. Most of us don’t know precisely how many friends and acquaintances we have, or exactly how much better we feel after taking an afternoon stroll and feeling the sun upon our face. But most of us have a very good idea of how many dollars we have—and that numerical precision can hurt our happiness.” Many gems in that one.
17 Questions That Changed My Life [Tim Ferriss] – These are questions that Tim asks himself and they’re good questions everyone should be asking themselves.
Can you be successful (while being lazy)? [Rad Reads] – “Being a beginner surfer, really sucks. Not because of the low wave count. Not because I had to awkwardly carry around one of those gigantic “Costco Boards.” And definitely not because I looked more like a doggy-paddling toddler than a shredding (and shredded) Kelly Slater. Nope. The worst part was the lactic acid. The non-stop paddling to catch a wave. Then some more paddling to get back out. Then even more paddling to fight a current or rip tide. For an entire year, my rotator cuffs would be on fire from this non-stop paddling. Then one day, I learned about the Cork Effect. This took me another year to grok. But when once I figured it out, it was an absolute game-changer.”