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The Right Way to be Right


Mr. Amazon Jeff Bezos stopped by the office of  37Signals (Basecamp and other collaboration magic) ... wouldn't that be a nice thing. Here is an excerpt From founder Jason Fried's summary of Jeff's advice...

During one of his answers, he shared an enlightened observation about people who are “right a lot”.

He said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy — encouraged, even — to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.

He’s observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary.

What trait signified someone who was wrong a lot of the time? Someone obsessed with details that only support one point of view. If someone can’t climb out of the details, and see the bigger picture from multiple angles, they’re often wrong most of the time.

Great advice.



Here is a related bonus article from Reid Hoffman (Mr. Linkedin) about Flexibly Persistent Career Planning (throughout your career)... It's Not About The Color of Your Parachute...


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