Breeding Nuance in a Too Certain World

Most people, regardless of politics, believe that they're right.

Whereas I've spent most of my life assuming that I'm wrong. Mostly about beliefs that people have provided to me.

I am not a perfect thinker, but I have spent a lot of time being careful about the positions I accept. That carefulness has been bred from a deep distrust of the people around me, in the sense that when you see people say one thing and do another - you should immediately question whether they believe what they say, or say things to either ease tensions or make themselves look better.

It has also led to a deep curiosity about the world. Certitude is the death of inner growth.

In that, I've made plenty of mistakes as a person. But I've also chosen to learn from my mistakes in addition to the mistakes of others.

There are a few conceptual perspectives that I've used to help me to become a clearer thinker. Here are a few:

Assume you could be wrong in any context; or recognize your own ignorance.

This is simply a matter of humility, and the acceptance of our fallibility as thinkers. Out of Greek philosophy we get a story of the oracles calling Socrates the wisest of all. His reply was that he knew nothing, and that the only reason he was wise was because he knew the extent of his own ignorance. If you can't understand where you're wrong, you can't understand how to be right, and therefore cannot change.

Argue your position to yourself, while steel-manning opposing views.

Be skeptical of the many frameworks you use to navigate the world by explaining them to yourself. Also, try to see how other's think by framing the best-case view from their perspective. Why do they believe certain things, and what utility do those things have? This allows you to actually reason through your already-accepted belief, while investigating a point of view from the other side. Many people's beliefs break down when forced into this exercise, because they realize they drew a conclusion without any evidence, arguments or internally consistent narrative. They may also come to realize that other modes of thinking could be useful in certain contexts. If not, at least you understand other people better.

Wisdom is about patterns, not about facts.

Too many people have opinions on the what’s of the world, without focusing on how they arrived at that conclusion. Wisdom is being able to synthesize information to inculcate a broader understanding of the world, of yourself - to see how things connect or draw together. In that sense, the wisest people are those we deem most capable of cutting through the bullshit, which includes their own. There are many people who know a lot about the world, but can never turn that lens inward, becoming blind to their own shortcomings. A Jeopardy super star knows a lot of things, but could be very unwise in terms of morality, spending habits, policies, their judgements of others or themselves. This is a limited notion of knowledge and intelligence, and blunts the true creative capacity of a person to create new ideas, or to inculcate good ideas into an existing framework.

There are orders of identity and simultaneous truths.

Identity is a game of concentric circles, with the largest circles reflecting our most universal claims about reality. The smaller, inner circles represent our understanding of ourselves and our immediate surroundings or cultures. It's more important to get the outer, universal circles correct because they inform the inner circles. These circles are not mutually exclusive, and are in fact mutually reinforcing. You can hold it to be true that you're a human first, and a (insert subsection of identity here). Meaning you can see yourself as part of a smaller community of people, while also holding true to your shared notion of humanity. We can see endless differences between people, without rationalizing that we're all 99.99% genetically identical. We need to hold both difference and similarity in our hands in order to see the world for what it is. You can also see these circles as Circles of Concern - the smallest circle being yourself and your immediate needs, the next circle your family, the next your community, and so on.

You're mind is a river, not a fixed object.

You have a stable sense of self over time, but may not even relate to younger versions of you. We are changing all the time, and our inner worlds - how we think - can change given better evidence or better arguments. The concept of people being intellectually dead in their twenties or thirties is attributed to many thinkers. The implication is that many believe they're fixed or static, and that they can't or refuse to change - where in fact this is just a self-limiting belief. The ship of Theseus comes to mind - wherein over time the ship’s parts change out entirely. Is it still the same ship? I think the answer is somewhere between yes and no. People's minds are much the same.

Uncertainty is a path towards curiosity and confidence.

Being skeptical of your own conclusions allows one to investigate. It begs a question to be asked and answered. Confidence, in terms of beliefs, is about degrees of certainty, not yes/no dichotomies on whether a position is right or wrong, or accepting positions wholesale. You can be x% certain that something is true or convincing, while giving yourself room to change your mind. You don't need to be on the poles in a gradient of truth when it comes to positions or perspectives.

Certainty is the death of conversation, compromise and society.

All good conversation happens in the nuance between the polls of yes/no, right/wrong. If someone can't be convinced that they're wrong about *some* things, there's no point in engaging. Certainty is a mental death, because you're no longer choosing to be informed by better information or better arguments. You're closed off both to external evidence, and to your true nature, which is one of change, adaption, connection and inner evolution.

The question is just as important as the answer.

As with above, if you ask a yes/no question, you get a binary answer - wherein many moral scenarios become impossible to answer *rightly*. The answer is usually somewhere in the middle of yes and no in most cases. The questions we ask inform the answers we get. Too many debates center around narrow questions on whether propositions are true, or more true than the opposite one. Asking open questions about how certain ideas function, or how they correlate with other ideas, is a better way of attempting to understand the world around you.

Being wrong is a pathway to being right.

This versus *being wrong* being seen as a personal attack, or a defect of one's character. Everyone is wrong or misguided at some point in their lives. You can subsume yourself in self-hate or pity, or you can learn from your experience and attempt to never repeat the actions that offended you. You can teach yourself new ways of thinking that help you get out of old patterns. There is no easy solution to most difficult problems, whether they be interpersonal or societal in scale. This also applies to others' being wrong - learn from them and seek not to repeat their behavior.

You are not your thoughts.

Too many people assign their beliefs to who they are. Many of these beliefs are based on group politics - identity broadly. When confronted with positions they can't defend, people become defensive and less likely to change. This is a self-imposed, negative feedback loop. You are the awareness behind the conclusions, not the conclusions themselves. Stop marrying your identity to nebulous opinions and conclusions, and instead marry it to principles that you can argue to yourself. This informs how you think, which allows for adaption, nuance - and a more holistic world view.

In summary, no one is perfect, everyone has some level of bias (some more than others), and as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized most people operate on both emotion and belonging. Very few are willing to engage in open conversation because it would hurt them, which is the problem. We, as a society, need to be more resilient, open and curious about the world in order for us to solve many of the issues that we face - whether they be interpersonal or societal at scale. We can help achieve better personal and political lives by being skeptical, humble and curious - these are the lynchpins in getting out of fixed positions, stuck mindsets - and breeding an ultimately less certain but more wisdomatic world. Not knowing is in fact a pathway to becoming a more considered person.

Be the river, my friends.