Opinions Are Only One Tool: 04-23-2024

1. If you understand the purpose of opinions as providing information for immediate decisions and choices, then you understand that opinions are only useful in certain contexts and situations.
2. Opinions should be avoided when discovering, examining, exploring, inquiring, investigating, questioning, learning, problem-solving, researching, searching, seeking understanding, and any process that requires an open mind to function properly.
3. Opinions, being fixed in nature, require constant correcting and updating of the information they are based on. This means that when new information becomes available, it should be used to revise those opinions, ensuring they remain practical and useful.
4. Opinions are not the same as facts. Opinions are shortcuts for quick responses and should not be regarded as the thinking processes they are based on or the events or subjects they are about. Facts, on the other hand, are objective and verifiable pieces of information.
5. Opinions get a bad name because people hide behind them rather than do the necessary work to uncover enough facts and information to form reasonable understandings of events that are open to correction and updating over time. It is better to say, “I don’t know,” than to use someone else’s opinion as if you formed it.