Humility
Well, humility is an interesting concept. I have been searching for more formal definitions of humility. Some of the ones I’ve come across seem self-deprecating. I am not aiming for that, but this one seems alright:
“Humility involves having an accurate opinion of oneself and expressing oneself modestly as situations demand, with clear goal orientation, openness, broad-mindedness, and a non-imposing mentality.” 1
Having an accurate opinion of oneself, as described in the definition, sounds easier said than done. It requires a lot of self-examination, self-reflection, and self-honesty. It means knowing when I am right, wrong, or don’t know. When I am right, it’s easy to do the selfs I have just mentioned because there is coherence; measured observations agree with my opinions and expectations. The selfs are most useful when it’s the opposite—when measured observations or the majority are in disagreement with my opinions and expectations.
Am I open-minded and broad-minded enough to do the selfs when the masses or measured observations disagree with my opinions or expectations? Am I willing to consider I could possibly be wrong? Perhaps my axioms, the information I consumed, and the assumptions I made were wrong, and this led me to disagreeing with the crowd or measured results. Or is this one of those rare cases where an individual has an insight that the majority doesn’t have or is hidden in the observations made? It’s hard to know.
First, if I am in the minority on a particular subject or my expectations aren’t supported by measured observations, I should initially assume that I am missing some information, as suggested by the efficient market hypothesis2. However, this is only the first step: acknowledging, “Umm, maybe I could be wrong.” This is easier to do if I am not emotionally attached to my ideas or, as some internet anons eloquently say, “Don’t get married to your opinions, anon.” Then the next step is investigating why I could be wrong. Who are the most informed people discussing this topic and disagreeing with me?
- Are they well-researched?
- Are they referencing some reliably collected data or sources?
- Have they debated other smart people that disagree with them without gaslighting them?
If the answer to some of these questions is yes, then I should now be open to changing my opinion or at least discarding my wrong one. If the answers to the above questions are no, then maybe my opinion is correct. Can I test my view by acting on it and collecting more data? Good opinions are the ones that can be tested. When I do the initial test, I should do it at a small scale with small stakes. In case it backfires, I should be able to manage it.
If I get results confirming my outlook from the data collection, I should act with more conviction while still leaving room for error. If the data collection doesn’t confirm my outlook, then maybe I should repeat the process. After repeating, if the results are still null, then maybe I should put the opinion on the shelf, humbly move on, be happy, and revisit it in the future if new advancements happen.