For about a decade, I used to receive a bunch of mainstream media publications. I never read the opinion and op-ed pages. Then as now, that’s where you’d find the most deranged echo-chambered drivel trying to pass for whatever else. In the rare event that one in 100,000 opinion pieces makes sense, it’s usually irrelevant to everyday decisions. Zero reasons to waste attention. Because of my background, friends and relatives off Twitter sometimes ask my opinion on major life decisions such as buying a house of switching jobs. Twitter folk seek my opinion so frequently that you wouldn’t believe it. And they are often outraged when I say I don’t have opinions on their pet subjects. Opinion is different from advice, but I don’t give advice either (unless you’re paying for it somehow). Here’s why. An opinion is a mental pattern ungrounded in evidence or deep cognition. It’s typically the offshoot of some preconceived notion. Even if it isn’t, all opinion does is make the mind resistant to new information. It’s a drain on attention and energy. Whatever its basis, opinion is a cost without a benefit. Authentic, impactful, decisive action is driven by authentic knowledge, desire, instinct – not by shallow opinion. I’m yet to see compelling evidence that opinions are anything but a deadweight cost to me, so I make a deliberate effort not to have any. And it does take deliberate effort to unlearn the habit of having an opinion about everything. What surprised me along the way? That even more effort was required to resist people’s attempts to make me have an opinion. Because lo-awarenes loix have opinions on everything regardless of relevance or information. And one of the hallmarks of being lo-awarenes is the tribal expectation that other people are like you. But, you may … Continue reading Value and Opinion