Ask HN: What's a recent insight you had that changed the way you think?

[perpetualcrayon]

In my experience, the greatest gains I've ever had in understanding the world around me have come in small "explosions" of insight. And a lot of times the substance of those insights I was likely equipped to understand months before they came to me.

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.

[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...

[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.