Let’s say we learned X view from the people around us. Human nature is to believe X, and go around looking for evidence in the world that X is right, and arguing with others who have Y view.
Meanwhile, people who were taught Y first, go around doing the same thing with Y. We believe what we learn – especially what we learned first. This is especially true when we were specifically handed a book “to learn from” or sent to school “to learn”.
The best approach is to learn all we can, make observations of our own, and make our own decisions. Even still, we have to stay open to the idea that we may have missed something, and keep learning.
How did you form your operating beliefs?
By traveling and living different places. Most people only move a couple of times in their lives. I’ve been fortunate. I grew up in the Midwest, moved to the south east for a decade and have lived in New England for almost a decade. Points of view different everywhere you go.
Good morning from a beautiful morning in Chicago! Got my beliefs from my working class family…work Hard and long, learn everything you can and work all the overtime. Wow….talk about learning from the wrong people. Not that it’s bad, but kept me average like them. I was a technician and thought I was a businessman. SOE really spelled it out for us here at Norway Built!
One of the most common errors humans make is the confirmation bias. We only tune into and accept any data that supports our current belief system. All other info is discarded automatically.