Tommy Mello writes about the business world on Inc., saying, “Keep Changing Your Mind? According to Jeff Bezos, That’s a Sign of High Intelligence.” In case you’ve been living like Kermit the Hermit in a cave the past few years, Jeff Bezos is now the world’s wealthiest man and the founder of the behemoth internet retailer amazon.com.
Mello says that according to Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, Bezos said in a 2012 Q&A that people who tend to be right are those who change their minds “a lot.” Fried has further written concerning Bezos, “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.”
Mello says, “On the flip said, Bezos says that people who tend to be obsessed with details that only support one point of view are the ones who get it wrong.”
Mellow says Fried also says of Bezos’ approach, “If someone can’t climb out of the details, and see the bigger picture from multiple angels, they’re often wrong most of the time.”
Mello explains, “The way I see it, what we’re really talking about here is humility. If you’re humble enough to acknowledge that someone who has a different opinion might be right, then this allows you to learn and grow more quickly, while improving your decision-making skills.”
Mello continues, “If you find it difficult to consider other points of view, then you’ve probably grown too attached to your ideas. In my work, I see this all the time. People forget what the goal is, and they fight to ‘be right’ instead of fighting to do what’s best for the customers.
Now, the simplest way of training yourself to be more open to other points of view is to read widely, and interact with people from all walks of life.”
I think these words of wisdom can be applied to most if not all of life, including theology and Bible study. It is called critical thinking. Just because you were taught something, or you believe what most everybody else believes, or you came up with some idea, does not rationally mean it is right or the best way to think. As a Texan friend of mine once said, “We all need to eat a little humble pie once in a while.” We do this by listening, reading, and learning from others and trying to subject what we think to an unbiased, critical examination as much as lieth in us.
To learn of my foremost experience at thinking critically about theology and the Bible, read “At Forty Years Old I Best Saw the Light; Trinity Doctrine No Longer Seemed Right.”
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