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| "Christ and the Doubting Thomas" by Luca Signorelli (1477-1482) |
Do you think that "being less certain" would be of benefit to you personally?
Can you think of any class of people (profession, age, gender, etc.) that might benefit from allowing a great sense of doubt into their own minds?
I think that being less certain would be a benefit to my personality. As someone who aspires to be an engineer, one would assume that I have a talent for math and science, and in part, that is true. While I can understand the concepts, I continuously make small errors (dropping a negative sign or mistyping an equation into the calculator). If I didn’t force myself to double check my calculations, I would have made “C”s and “D”s instead of “A”s. Perhaps, being less certain of myself would make it easier to see my mistakes, not only in school, but in life as well. Once visible, the mistakes can then become the basis for lessons to be learned. One group of people that could benefit from being less certain of themselves is leaders. Many people see a leader as someone who just tells everybody else what to do. While this is partially true, a leader’s duties aren’t just limited to distributing assignments. In situations of conflict or problem-solving, a leader needs to be able to listen to all sides for ideas and then combine the ideas to form the best overall solution. Often, leaders are quick to make a decision based solely on their own biases. Being less certain would encourage leaders to turn towards their followers for ideas and to ensure that the majority of the group is satisfied, either with the solution or with the fact that their ideas were taken into consideration during the problem solving process.
ReplyDeleteNathan Poole
I don't personally think that I have such a great memory while others I'm around think otherwise. I can remember recent events, such as those in the past year, pretty well, but older memories are fuzzy or nonexistent. With this being the case, I'm not very confident in the accuracy of my memory so I don't believe being less certain about my memories would benefit me. I'm also not a person to force how I remember something onto another person who remembers it differently. I enjoy hearing their memory and comparing differences or details I had overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI believe that scientists could benefit from allowing doubt to be present in their minds. Continually throughout history, theories and scientific truths have been found to be untrue or completely false. For instance, the earth is square or the earth is the center of our solar system. Yet, scientists today hold fast to ideas as absolute truths, such as the theory of evolution. There are many inconsistencies in that theory, but some scientists overlook even the possibility that it could be wrong. I was taught that while science can provide us with evidence about the world, it cannot prove anything as absolute.
Ashlyn Angel
I think everyone, including myself, could greatly benefit from being less certain. I'm naturally a pretty stubborn person at times, so allowing some doubt to creep in could definitely be a positive in my life.
ReplyDeleteI also think Nathan hit the nail on the head in saying people in leadership positions could benefit from being less certain. Nobody likes a dictator, and a leader that doubted his/her initial thoughts and allowed others to express ideas and opinions is a much more preferable option.
Matthew Parham
I think being less certain in you memory would be an injustice to you. Mlodinow talked about how our memories were at times wrong but he also concluded that memory doesn't need to be perfect for our species to survive and that life would be incredibly hard if we did actually remember everything. While being less certain at times would be helpful I think it would ultimately lower our self-confidence if we did it too much. I think if I was less certain in my memory it wouldn't help me but hurt me. I live and work in Ada and work at PEC with some people that are considerably powerful and that one could consider intimidating. If I were to be second guessing my memory all the time at I work it would one; make progress at work decrease considerably and 2; make me look weak in the eyes of my superiors. If my superiors thought that I wasn't capable of doing my tasks efficiently or that I wasn't confident in myself I would be stuck doing the same old thing day in and day out instead of learning new things and being given the responsibilities I am now being given.
ReplyDeleteI do think that in professions where lives are being trusted in the hands of one person it would be beneficial to not be as confident in your memory. IE a civil engineer shouldn't approve that a bridge was safe without inspecting it just because he oversaw its construction and nothing ever went wrong or a lawyer shouldn't trust that he has a case in the bag just based on his memory of the law in question instead looking over and reading the law. I would also like say I disagree with Nathan and Mathew in that leaders wouldn't be where they were if they were less certain. Take any presidential election for example if these candidates came off as less certain in their selves or that they didn't believe what they were saying they wouldn't have a chance at getting elected. I do think Nathan and Mathew both have valid points but I also think they are mistaking over confidence for not being open to what others have to say which in politics openness is practically non existent.
Alan Dennis
I agree with Nathan's comment that leaders would benefit from being less certain of themselves. During my senior year, a friend and I were responsible for coming up with new volunteer opportunities at our school. There were some ideas that fell through and had a low attendance rate. Once we started questioning some of our own plans and changing things, the attendance rates were much better later in the school year. I think that failure can sometimes be the best teacher when it comes to questioning yourself. If you fail at something and never doubt your method then you will most likely achieve the same results the next time.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to choosing a group that could benefit the greatest from allowing doubt into their minds’, I believe it would be my own generation. When I was choosing a college or applying for scholarships, it was hard to let other people advise me on what to say. I thought that the best person to represent myself would be me. Once I started receiving some rejection letters I realized that the people attempting to give me advice had already succeeded in those areas. I often hear my peers saying that their parents don’t understand them, or are too strict. But when you really think about it, parents have already seen and done enough to know more things than their children. Sometimes (especially for me) it is difficult to accept that someone else might know more about your life and your decisions than you do.
While doubting myself all the time doesn’t seem like a very uplifting mindset, doubting myself a little would benefit me more than assuming I’m always right and continually being proven wrong.
I think being less certain in my memories would benefit me in some ways. For example, when my siblings and I are talking about a trip or past experience, and one of us thinks that they know what exactly happened better than the other two, it can create conflict. My family is a stubborn bunch and has a hard time letting up on what they say or believe. I think that if people were less certain, there would not be as many hurt feelings or frustration in discussion.
ReplyDeleteI know that all the memories I have are not "clear" and that I have probably embellished them over the years unconsciously. When Mlodinow talked about witnessing September 11th, I started to think of my own account of this event. I remember being in a reading lab in 2nd grade and seeing the news on the T.V. that my teacher had turned on. After thinking about this some, I realized that the memory is really vivid. My memory overall is not that great so I'm sure that what I am "certain" is true probably is not completely.
Chelsi Norris
If you always believe your distorted memory is so correct that it is starting to interfere with the actual memories, then I think it would be a problem. Focusing less on details and more on the main idea of how you felt and what happened on a large scale is more important than remembering specific details. This is like the man in the book who could quote words but not get the message being portrayed by the person speaking.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Huhman
I think being more uncertain would do a lot of good for some people including myself. I tend, as an honors student, to hold the belief that I know a lot of things because I am smart. However, that is not always the case. There are many subjects and issues that I don't know enough about to be considered smart or even knowledgeable in those areas. I also think that being uncertain would become a way to protect ourselves. If someone were to believe that they really didn't know if something was good or not, they could protect themselves from entering into a dangerous situation. It also could be that you remained quiet during a conversation, so instead of making yourself overcompensate your wrong idea, you allowed the conversation to teach you the right way. I know for me this happens a lot during honors class when we have discussion (and it will happen a lot this year)!
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