That Makes Sense!

If that makes sense to you, then you're obviously not being challenged in your thoughts. Yes, that's right... if you hear, read or are told something and you think, "That makes sense!" you're basically just agreeing to something you already agree with. And what is the point of that? What do you learn when you are just re-iterated something that you already know? Furthermore, it may be something that you think is correct, but is not - that is the most harmful information of all! It happens everyday, though. People are always spouting off so-called common sense as "advice" and "knowledge". You hear it, you agree with it, and it makes you think that person is so smart. Sure, "That makes so much sense."

In reality, however, you should pay little attention to the advice out there that you immediately agree with. Pay no attention to the things that you merely mull around in your own mind and come to agree with based upon your own, limited knowledge. As people, we all have limited knowledge, and if we agree with something; it's because we know about it, we've heard it before, and probably everyone else in the world understands it, too. This kind of thinking will get you almost nowhere further than where you are now. You'll probably just end up buying tonnes of books and reading blogs that tell you what you want to hear, rather than something that would enlighten you. This is one of the weaknesses the "financial gurus" play upon... giving the audience what they want (not what they need).

If you've ever studied history, you'll find the old pattern that great thinkers who have changed the world with their thoughts were always crazy. Yes, crazy. They were crazy at first, because you're crazy when no one can see your novel point of view. You're crazy when your ideas and thinking seem so far-fetched that people get angry and lock you up. With hindsight, however, we can see that people like Galileo (who thought the Earth was spherical) and Leonardo DaVinci weren't so crazy, after all.

But, who is that Chinese guy up there? Well, that's a man called Xun Zi, who learned stuff from Confucius, but didn't sit there and think, "Hmm... that Confucius is so smart! I totally agree with everything he says, therefore it must be right." He learned from Confucius, but also questioned Confucius' words of wisdom. Xun Zi proposed that all people are born innately evil and only through rigorous law and education could they become civil beings. Xun Zi proposed that society needed to depend on laws to keep people in line, rather than depending upon moral upbringing and education. I'm not trying to propose who was right and who was wrong - I'm merely pointing out that if Xun Zi had just agreed with Confucius, he might never have proposed his history-altering ways of thinking. Don't you know that the man who united all of China, Qin Shi Huang, created a society along the guidelines of Xun Zi?

The point is that we all have limited knowledge, and if we come across something we totally don't agree with - don't just dismiss it as being crazy or unworthy of your attention. Maybe you should think about it, analyze it, research it? In the best case, you'll come away with new knowledge (that most other people don't have) and a new understanding; and in the worst case, you'll only have wasted your time (but you'll be able to intelligently refute future "crazy advice").