I deleted my comment before I knew you were writing a reply. My comment originally said that I think there's two ways of exploring the world. 1. Start with a

I deleted my comment before I knew you were writing a reply. My comment originally said that I think there's two ways of exploring the world. 1. Start with a conclusion you want to be true and looking for evidence that supports your view, or 2. Start by gathering facts and trying to find conclusions in them. You write: > This is what I want, and therefore I try to find theories to support that. Right. I think that view fundamentally leads to disastrously bad places. It leads to assuming you're correct and looking for confirmation instead of truth. Truth is often unpleasant. Confirmation is easily found, even for the stupidest and craziest arguments - look at some of the clearly insane views that people hold with no backing. Why do they think that way? Because they start with the idea that they're right and look to prove that. It's easy to prove you're right, especially if your views are the norm in your community. It's much harder to say, "What if I'm wrong?" and to constantly seek out counter-arguments and test your views. Everyone has views that are wrong, mistaken, poorly informed, and counter-productive. The challenge of becoming an informed person is challenging your views constantly - even your sacred ones - looking for smarter arguments. It's difficult and stressful. I can't even recommend it if your goal in life is happiness, because if you succeed then everyone in your social circle starts to think you're nuts. But ideally, you become gradually less wrong over time and can do a lot of good for the world, even when your views look crazy to people who never stopped and asked, "What if the world isn't the way I thought it was...?"