Rules of Thinking, The

RULE 99

Don’t go into lockdown

What happens to your beliefs when information changes or prevailing views shift? Do you change your mind or do you accommodate it? Or do you stick with what you always thought – it was good enough then so it’s good enough now?

That’s the attitude a lot of people take, but it simply makes no sense. We know people generally dislike change, at least when they’re not in control of it. But look, the whole of scientific progress relies on modifying or even scrapping theories when new data comes along that overrides it. Newton’s theory of gravity was good enough until Einstein pointed out that it only went so far.

And it’s not just science this applies to. Take social attitudes. When I was young, western attitudes to ...