Three Quotes On Becoming Mentally Nimble

What Happens When We Ditch Our Labels

Watch the video.

Three Quotes:

First, Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Second quote — my own: “It’s difficult to get anyone to understand something when the labels they’ve applied to their identity depend on them not understanding it.” 

Achieving understanding in either situation will undermine identity — one’s professional identity and means of earning income or the identity built up with carefully-curated labels. So by and large, people stop trying to reason things out, flee the cognitive dissonance, and retreat to what their labels tell them is true. 

Third quote: F Scott Fitzgerald. “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

Most can’t do this because they’re so wrapped up in labels that giving both sides of an argument their due is painful. So they don’t think, they stay stuck, and they make bad decisions.

If your thinking isn’t nimble enough to consider the merits of all sides of an issue, something is wrong. First step? Divorce your labels and start over from first principles.