Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Wow, does this ever hit a sore spot for me. I catch myself doing this all the time. But, worse still, I bet there are more times when I don’t even notice I have succumbed to the behaviour.
Still, one of the few benefits of getting older is that time and experience has given me just a bit more openness to the idea I might be wrong. I continue to work on this every day since, in my view, it’s one of the most important, and most rare, life skills we can develop.
Being able to change our minds is doubly important in the offshore sailing world where so much of the generally believed wisdom is just plain wrong, and the consequences of not changing our minds about a dangerous thing we believe can be so serious.
A special thanks to all of you who comment, which has, and will continue to play an important role in my personal battle to think first about ways I could be wrong.