Older and more Open Minded?

Posted at July 30, 2008

So, some people might be wondering why I moved to Taiwan. Of course there are a lot of reasons, and if you know me that probably would give you a clue ( !! ), but there was another one that’s been on my mind again recently.

mungerben As I get older I seem to be getting more and more opinionated. At work, we’ve all known the person who wants to say, “been there, done that, kid. Ain’t nothin’ new”

I started to wonder if it is possible to get more open minded as you get older. If you agree that growing more open minded is a good thing, then you’d wonder how to do it. It doesn’t seem to happen automatically.

There are a few people who’ve left behind quotes or have been talked about as being great at this virtue. I believe this virtue has been said a lot of different ways, and here are a few:

Charlie Munger
(Warren Buffett’s right hand man and someone often compared with
Benjamin Franklin) – “Any year that passes in which you don’t destroy
one of your best loved ideas is a wasted year.”
“The more I learn the less I know”
Charles Darwin – “Of all the great scientists, Charles Darwin was the least obviously
brilliant. He was not at all mathematical, he mastered no foreign
languages…” Rather what Darwin had more than anything was his unending questioning of his own beliefs. Darwins words paraphrased: “Conscientious doubt, viewed not as a state of disbelief,
but as a state of inquiry…”
Zen Buddhism – the concept of beginners mind. This is the method of doing everything as if you’ve never done it before. Stay curious.

I could have found more instances of this theme out there without too much trouble, but what I like about these three is that they are from completely different walks of life. A biologist, a religious tenet, and a living, very successful, western businessman. They are out there!

I decided that working / being in different environments (Ie. Taiwan)
would be good for this because I would be forced to challenge a lot of
my own assumptions. This was one of the things that supported my move
here and I hope will encourage me to grow more open minded, though I
know I can’t do these kinds of things forever.

Image Courtesy of Poor Charlie’s Almanak website