"But I’m trying to hold my beliefs lightly, in the long view that almost all of them, I’m sure, will one day be seen as very naive or even completely misguided.That is from a very nice post about "smart aid" by David Week. Any serious aid worker is constantly trying to infer principles about what works and what doesn't, and then to have those principles guide his/her actions. Naturally, many of us want to tell others what we have discovered about what is effective and what is a waste of time and resources. But we should realize, says Week, that we will often be wrong, and that should be very humbling.
The purpose of holding them lightly is not to drop them completely, but just make it more difficult to beat other people over the head with them, more difficult to hold on to them when they’re clearly not being helpful, and easier to swap for other ideas, when those new ideas appear promising."
Monday, November 29, 2010
Holding Beliefs Lightly
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2 comments:
I agree with the goal of "holding beliefs lightly", just as I do with another goal we all talk about of "overcoming bias". I'm glad David is helping to persuade people to take this goal as their own. But isn't the much more interesting question, how? How can we help ourselves to be decisive enough in our understanding of things to act, and yet, be alert and open enough to update our understanding of what to do in light of new informatation as it becomes available?
You are right that the "how" is the key, April! But actually, the "what" of holding beliefs lightly is a big change for many of us, who can sometimes be dogmatic. It would be great to have more stories of people who successfully held their beliefs lightly, and then refined those beliefs based on new information. Please send any of those you can find!
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