In spite of the fact that I am a huge fan of the Kindle, I don’t really pay that much attention to Jeff Bezos. But I really identify with an idea that 37 Signals had in a blog post today.
Jeff Bezos stopped by their office and before he left he had an open Q & A session with the staff. In a response to one of the questions he said that he did not think that consistency in thought was all that helpful. People that are right a lot of the time were people who often changed their mind. It is perfectly healthy – encouraged even – to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today. Many of the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they had already solved. Jason Fried finished the thought by saying that it means that points of view should be considered temporary.
This is my position as a book reviewer and thinker and Christian. That is not to say that everything is equally open. But that I frequently contradict myself. I am unfair (both positively and negatively) in my evaluations of books, often not because of the book itself, but because of the ideas that occur around the book (the other books I am reading, the other conversations I am having, the ways that God is working on my heart.
If you are looking for consistency this is probably not the blog for your. If you are looking for willingness to consider new ideas, I hope you will join in and contribute to the conversation.
It’s a mistake to equate consistency with coherence. Blind adherence to the former will often undermine the latter. And coherence should be the goal in our thinking.
That’s my thought for the day.
A wise one as always Dr Rob 🙂