“I like to keep my opinions loosely held. I entertain thoughts without accepting them. From time to time I even flirt with hypocrisy: I believe one thing, but I do the other. If I find myself being hypocritical, I take that as a sign that my mind might be changing – and that’s a good thing for a mind to do from time to time. . . .
“‘The test of a first-rate intelligence,’ F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, ‘is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.’. . .
“Instead of committing ourselves to a single opinion, we can entertain multiple views and reduce our attachment to any one of them. Instead of singing a single melody, we can add a countermelody. Instead of marching to a consistent beat, we can dance our dance, delighting in surprising rhythms. . . .
“If you let contradictory thoughts dance with each other without your head exploding, they’ll produce a symphony brimming with additional music – in the form of new ideas – far superior to the original. . . .
“In the end, there’s so much beauty in complexity. A world of multitudes is far more interesting – and accurate – that a world of certitudes.”
– Ozan Varol “Awaken Your Genius: Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary” (2023)
I am not a big fan of self-help books. To get my fix of how-to-live-better inspiration I usually turn to philosophy, biographies or novels. I stumbled upon this book last weekend and liked how it’s both deep and practical, rooted in the author’s willingness to think through and open up about his own zigzags in life.
I really liked those quotes, though not the one from F. Scott Fitzgerald, which seemed designed to sound profound and be repeated. We need more hypocrites and people not afraid to think.