

Ask HN: How would you change your mind? - read

A recent HN post introduced the idea that changing your mind is one of the most difficult things we do [1]. This got me thinking what makes it difficult.<p>It&#x27;s probably not difficult in the same way running a marathon is. It&#x27;s not the sort of thing you could treat with willpower and discipline alone. What makes it difficult is how <i>convinced</i> you are you shouldn&#x27;t change your mind. You think your current opinions are correct. But besides yourself being mistaken without realizing it, you are also convinced other people -- the ones trying to help change your mind -- are mistaken too. You don&#x27;t even entertain a contradictory thought. You are being relentless but with only the bad parts.<p>If you wanted to change your mind then, how would you do it?<p>How would you collide your misconceptions with those of others and come away a better person? And how can you do that as systematically as you train for a marathon?<p>The surprising thing is it feels like something that requires loose shamelessness than strict discipline. You have to admit, as often as possible, that you don&#x27;t have the answers. A weak willpower appears to get you further here since you don&#x27;t fight each counterargument to what you thought you knew.<p>What do <i>you</i>, personally, do right now to change your mind? Have you discovered tricks that help? Do some tricks work better than others?<p>Is there a process to the madness?<p>[1] - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=7895364
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T-A
You, Sir, are contradicting none less than W. Somerset Maugham, who famously
wrote: "Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's
mind." :P

Seriously, it does take discipline and willpower to do the due diligence of
acquiring facts and thinking through issues rather than just going with what's
convenient or feels right. We are wired to do a lot of the latter and only a
little of the former, because thinking rigorously is hard and slow work ill
suited to everyday survival needs.

I suppose learning about our bimodal thinking -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow)
\- and about common cognitive biases -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases)
\- is a start. There are many off-the-shelf decision making processes one
could consider adopting - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision-
making](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision-making) \- but, again, it's a
lot of work...

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sidcool
Changing a personality completely is next to impossible. There will be deeply
ingrained opinions/thoughts/patterns that will remain. But there is something
called epigenetics or "heritable changes in gene activity that are not caused
by changes in the DNA sequence".

By power of habit and meditation, a limited change can be made.

