The Work Required to Have an Opinion

Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett's partner in crime and Co Chairman at Berkshire Hathaway. 

"I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that
I don't know the other side's argument better than they do."
— Charlie Munger

***

While we all hold an opinion on almost everything, how many of us do the work required to have an opinion?

The work is the hard part, that's why people avoid it. You have to do the reading. You have to talk to anyone competent you can find and listen to their arguments. You have to think about the key variables and how they interact. You have to listen and chase down arguments that run counter to your views. You have to think about how you might be fooling yourself. You have to see the issue through multiple lenses. You need to become your most intelligent critic and have the intellectual honesty to kill some of your best-loved ideas.

"We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time.
Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one
of the most valuable qualities you can acquire.
You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side."
— Charlie Munger

As Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (1135–1204), commonly known as Maimonides, said:

"Teach thy tongue to say I do not know, and thou shalt progress."

https://fs.blog/2013/04/the-work-required-to-have-an-opinion/

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