A Matter of Perspective

No matter what age you are, it's likely that you've changed your mind about something at least once in your life. For someone like me who really enjoys a good debate, it's terribly hard to admit that I've changed my mind about anything.

My normal rationalization is that I have some new information which affected my opinion. The truth is often that as I've aged and had new experiences, my perspective has changed. Don't you agree, perspective plays a large role in how we view life?

Depeche Mode (here he goes again with the music reference!) is one of my favorite bands from the ’80s. One of their song lyrics went something like this; "You can't change the world, but you can change the facts. And when you change the facts, you change points of view. If you change points of view, you may change a vote. And when you change a vote, you may change the world." It's really a very deep concept that bears directly on my point.

Our actions are the results of our opinions. Our opinions are shaped by our perspective. Ever wonder why your parents thought the culture of your youth was so out of touch with reality? Ever wondered why your kids now think the same thing about you? It's perspective!

The notion of public opinion can't accurately be considered without including the effects of perspective. Depending on what segment of the public you ask, I'm sure you'll get a different opinion on a range of issues. Given the unprecedented speed that news can spread in 2011, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn't been exposed to the major news of the day. The problem comes from trying to find someone whose mind hasn't already been made up on the topic. When you see a group of people protesting an issue, have you ever witnessed any of them walking away saying, “I see their point. I was wrong, but now I agree.”

Remember the movie, “I Robot?” The character played by Will Smith had a real chip on his shoulder towards robots from an event in his past. The issue of perspective was illustrated when he saw a robot running down the sidewalk with a purse, he assumed the robot had stolen it. On the contrary, the robot was actually hurrying to take the purse to an asthmatic lady who needed her inhaler. You probably have personal stories from your own life that highlight the same concept.

With an alternative perspective, we can often draw the wrong conclusion. It would be hard to count the number of times I've been driving very slowly with a car load full of expensive audiovisual equipment. To the person behind me, I'm an idiot for not driving as fast as they want me to.

However, if they understood that I have a perfectly good reason for driving slowly, it might make them a bit more tolerant. I remain hopeful...

So how do we avoid this problem? How do we know when all the facts have been considered? How can we ensure that our decisions won't be flawed by our perspective? I'm afraid there's no easy answer.

Even when we believe all the facts have been evaluated, it's not always possible to know that the facts are accurate. (I've admitted that I'm a skeptic, so I tend to doubt most things that I don't already have an experience with. When someone declares their belief to be a fact, little sirens go off in my head.)

If we hope to make decisions that aren't flawed by our perspective, we need to open ourselves to admitting we might be wrong. We must consider that our perspective could improve from new information.

It's no different than a forest ranger who builds a tower to help spot fires. It wouldn't do much good for them to look out the window of their cabin and announce the forest was safe simply because they didn't see the fire. Instead, they build very tall towers so they can see a larger area. That's how we need to think when making our own decisions. Look far and wide before declaring your opinion.