Calvin Rosser

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1/ Let's define mental liquidity.
 
Mental liquidity – the ease with which you can quickly change your mind without being stuck on your preexisting beliefs or worldview.
 
Sounds easy, right? Well..social norms and our brain make it hard in practice.

2/ Social norms

We value people who are consistent in their thinking because it shows integrity and confidence.

This is sensible when applied to things like someone always telling the truth.
 
It makes much less sense with someone's political leanings or economic forecasts.

3/ Our 
 
Mental liquidity requires an open mind, curiosity, and humility. It also requires letting go of ego, identity, and ideological dogma.
 
This is hard.
 
It's made even harder by anchoring, a cognitive bias in which we rely too heavily on an initial piece of info.

4/ An example is the pandemic.
 
Many people anchored to the beliefs they formed a year ago, despite new data & changing circumstances.

5/ Instead of welcoming new data, many people have anchored on initial beliefs and been trapped in ideology.
 
This inability to adjust has little to do with intelligence. It’s caused by low mental liquidity.
 
There’s little to no room to trade existing beliefs for new ones.

6/ I bet we all think we're more mentally liquid than we are.
 
That's because it's pleasant to think that you're open-minded, egoless, curious, and receptive to new info.
 
But this is not true for most ppl, including me. In fact, I think we get less mentally liquid with time.

7/ But there’s hope!

You can become more mentally liquid by:
 
❶ Surrounding yourself with people who you don't always agree with.
 
❷ Thinking like a scientist. Don't try to be right. Try to be less wrong.
 
Both of these can be uncomfortable. But they're worth it.

8/ Despite the challenges, we should all find ways to be more mentally liquid. 
 
With more mental liquidity, we would have a more compassionate, less resentful, and more productive world.

That's worth the effort.
 
Strong convictions, loosely held.

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Calvin Rosser

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