Opinions are worth a dime!

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions. - Albert Einstein

Hi,

If you are new here or reading it first time,

I am Aman and this safe space is my own metaverse, do check out all the adventures, hope you enjoy your ride :))

Opinions:: Good || Bad :: ??

What do you think is a more important attribute, How to think or What to think ?

From what I have been told and read, emphasizes the later but I believe it is the former which is more important or rather more right.

There are numerous reasons as to why I believe my stance on one is more right than the other and I can rant about it all day, but I think Shane does a better job than me in explaining this

Now that we have the fundamental which we are choosing to believe clear let's jump straight into this new adventure ;)

Is being opinionated bad?

I don't think so, The whole crux of thinking effectively focuses on wrestling with our thoughts and optimizing for them, It is absolutely impossible for me to not form an opinion on something about which I have been deeply thinking from a long time.

A part of who I am highlights what opinions I hold dear to myself and will stand for.

opinions[strong][conflicts]

I have recently realized that any sort of bias that we as human beings embody can be originated from our opinions/views that we hold dear to our heart.

Sometimes coming off as strongly opinionated may cause polarization in certain aspects and I don't think that is wrong either.

[1]: I am not a huge fan of cricket as a sport, neither do I watch the sport nor do I indulge in playing it.

Reasons as to why I do not like the sport:

Not any reason in particular, I don't think it excites me that much.

[2]: I think that formal education system does more damage than good, and I believe anyone with proper environment optimization doesn't need formal education to succeed in "Academia"

Reasons:

• Zero sum games
• [What to think] >>> [How to think]
• Importance of Marks >>> Ability to learn
• Negative environment for developing curiosity
• Lack of Individualism

I probably have a long list of reasons directing what I think regarding this, claiming that my strong opinions in this particular area persuades how I think on this topic may not be wrong.

From what I have been thinking and have realized during last couple of days is that, forming opinions is somewhat our second nature, It's a thesis of how we think about things, failure to correct that thesis when presented with a proof of a better explanation is what is the root cause of conflicts related to opinions.

It's not about who is right and who is wrong, it's always about who has a better explanation in the said context.

To truly think things through, will always require us to come up with our own conjectures, the process of coming with those conjectures is not wrong, it's who we are and how we think.

Failure to accept the falsification of those conjectures, is what restricts us from being better thinkers, this is what I believe.

Necessity of opinions

As a frontend engineer I am biased towards certain technologies(React) and am opinionated about those.

Does this mean, React is the best out there?

No, It only projects my personal set of views/opinions highlighting my perspective.

We are inspired by people, who have a good way of articulating their explanation of how they think and what opinions they hold, we as communities align with people who think along the same lines as we do and it is absolutely impossible to find people like us without forming opinions.

Having said this I do not believe that forming opinions on all topics is a good attribute to have, I have a finite mind space and clogging it with thinking about each and everything is probably not good for me.

I'd rather choose not to have opinion on politics, If I feel it's not interesting to me or is taking my mind space off of some other thing, which would rather be of more interest.

Conclusion

Thus I have 2 far fetched conjectures to make:

• Inability to accept the falsification of our own opinions is very dangerous
• Opinions are worth a dime, can be formed easily but it takes real effort to turn them into good explanations.

One of the most important reasons for me to start writing this year was to articulate my thought clearly, to be more flexible in how I think is very important to me, as it helps me have a better clarity with who I am and what I think.