Know the other side better than them

This is something that I continue to struggle with but continue to work on — understanding the “other side” as much as I can. As I said a few days ago about understanding those that confound us, this not only helps me sharpen my own beliefs, but will lead me down a path to changing those beliefs if that’s the logical result.

It was over a decade ago that I shared the thoughts of Jeff Bezos when he said that “ people who were right a lot of time were people who often changed their minds”, and more recently the quote from J.M. Keynes who said “ When somebody persuades me that I am wrong, I change my mind. What do you do? “.

This came up again while reading the “ Tao of Charlie Munger “ when he said:

“It’s bad to have an opinion you’re proud of if you can’t state the arguments for the other side better than your opponents. This is a great mental discipline.”

The book was written by David Clark, who offered commentary on Charlie’s quotes, and I loved what David had to say about this one. He said:

“This mental exercise comes from Charlie’s early training in law, where it is an advantage to be able to argue both sides of a case. Knowing the other side’s arguments, its possible points of attack, allows one to prepare counterattacks long before a case gets into the courtroom. The most…