
Ask HN: What's a recent insight you had that changed the way you think? - perpetualcrayon
In my experience, the greatest gains I&#x27;ve ever had in understanding the world around me have come in small &quot;explosions&quot; of insight.  And a lot of times the substance of those insights I was likely equipped to understand months before they came to me.<p>Maybe having this sort of thread published regularly (monthly?) on HN could help us all bypass those latent periods we live through having no noteworthy insights.
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itronitron
Usually other people's insights change the way I think, whereas my own
insights just reinforce my thought processes. I think there are two categories
of insights that change how people think (maybe more) ... 1) light-bulb
insights and 2) burn-down-the-house insights. The latter category typically
entails a tossing out of prior knowledge, training, or conditioning. I have
experienced these after prolonged immersion in a very different environment
and after reading books that I hated/couldn't accept initially. The light-bulb
insights typically come after intensive study, but don't change how I think...

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arjunmenon1899
I read a book recently called the Mind in the making by James Harvey Robinson.
The author made an interesting point when he said that the time taken by
people to form an opinion is actually so short, but the passion with which
they defend their opinions is astonishing.

This really made me re-think my opinions.

