ISSUE No.1
We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own; disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning."
When I was a student in high school, I used to have a classmate sitting next to me, whom that always held different opinions from mine. As I suggested the Chinese classical literature is profound in describing people’s feeling, he insisted that the Western literature focuses more on humanity. To be well-prepared to argue with him, I was forced to read a lot of books and to listen to different types of music which he commended. After two year, I started to realize the benefits that reading broadly brings me. Therefore, from my personal experience, I could not agree with the above statement, which claims that “we usually learn much more from people whose view we share than from people whose views contradict our own.”
As we review our learning process, we had always come across with something not familiar, something not sure, and something disputed. While we were searching for the truth and answer by ourselves, others’ opinion also effect significantly on our cognize. If every time, we only listen to the people who share the same view with us, we would hastily make a conclusion, and limit ourselves into an incommodious scale of knowledge. People share the same view would suffer from the same flaws. In this aspect, they could not help each other avoiding mistakes.
On the other hand, people with contradict view with our own could always enlighten us with something we ignored. If we can try to look at a problem with a different point of view, we may get some new ideas and inspirations. If we can accept other’s criticism and examine our works, some mistakes and loss would be avoided.
Admittedly, contradict views could frustrate us in some extend, especially, to some people with less confidence about themselves. But we should fact that the learning of knowledge, itself, is a painful progress. We could not always be applauded. Disagreements would contribute to our learning more than simply sympathize.
[ Last edited by staralways on 2005-8-14 at 00:10 ]