4 ms·
I’m reminded of “Strong Opinons, Weakly Held”: I’ve been pretty obsessed about the difference between smart people and wise people for years. I tried to write
by js2 9y ago
I’m reminded of “Strong Opinons, Weakly Held”:
I’ve been pretty obsessed about the difference between smart people and wise people for years. I tried to write a book called “The Attitude of Wisdom” a couple times. And the virtues of wise people – those who have the courage to act on their knowledge, but the humility to doubt what they know – is one of the main themes in Hard Facts. We show how leaders including Xerox’s Ann Mulcahy, Intel’s Any Grove, Harrah’s Gary Loveman, and IDEO’s David Kelley turn this attitude into organizational action. Perhaps the best description I’ve ever seen of how wise people act comes from the amazing folks at Palo Alto’s Institute for the Future. A couple years ago, I was talking the Institute’s Bob Johansen about wisdom, and he explained that – to deal with an uncertain future and still move forward – they advise people to have “strong opinions, which are weakly held.” They've been giving this advice for years, and I understand that it was first developed by Instituite Director Paul Saffo. Bob explained that weak opinions are problematic because people aren’t inspired to develop the best arguments possible for them, or to put forth the energy required to test them. Bob explained that it was just as important, however, to not be too attached to what you believe because, otherwise, it undermines your ability to “see” and “hear” evidence that clashes with your opinions. This is what psychologists sometimes call the problem of “confirmation bias.”
http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/strong_opinions.html http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/strong_opinio...
- duncanawoods 9y agoI've always been troubled by this because it seems to excuse poor behaviour i.e. - "strong opinion" - the opinion is asserted aggressively and without tact - "weakly held" - there is little justification for the opinion and it will be abandoned under pressure and on a whim Sutton seems to want Strong to mean something about "attracting energy" as if Strong means "intentionally provocative" but it really isn't clear to me. I prefer "reasoned opinions presented thoughtfully" but then I'm British so... eh.
- dwaltrip 9y agoMy interpretation: "well-reasoned beliefs that are acted on strongly but easily discarded when appropriate". If a belief or idea isn't well-reasoned or doesn't have strong backing then it should be held weakly and also _not_ acted on (neither in the affirmative nor vice versa).
- kelnos 9y agoI think it's phrased that way to emphasize the -- perhaps unintuitive -- dichotomy, not to suggest that people be tactless or thoughtless. The way I (admittedly not British) read it is: - "strong opinion" - I've thought about this a lot and it seems reasonable and justifiable enough to base my actions on it. - "weakly held" - I recognize that I'm not a perfect being and can discard my opinions if I come across new, convincing evidence that contradicts them. The main difference I think is avoiding equating "strong" with "brutish" and "weak" with "pushover". I think when those terms are applied to people that's how we think of them, but they just mean very different things in an academic/intellectual context.
- marcosdumay 9y agoI get "strong opinion" to mean not settling for middle ground just because there's an opposition or some pressure. And weakly held to mean it should be abandoned if new evidence makes it wrong.