On opinions

December 2, 2024

I have been told, that one should have or even by necessity has an opinion on everything. I disagree.

People who have an opinion on everything have spent less time per topic thinking about the topic and forming said opinion.

An opinion which is based upon 10 seconds of thinking and a gut feelingNote, that a gut feeling is not necessarily something bad. But especially in science-y topics, where one has to deal with statistics etc., the gut is not to be trusted, because the gut is often worse at mental calculations than even the most vocal math hater. The gut is about what feels intuitively right, but statistics often aren’t intuitive. is usually not a “good” one, i.e. a well-thought-out one. 10 seconds might seem like an exaggeration. It is often, but not always.

I’m not saying that it is always a good idea to have no opinion, but I’m saying that it is better to have no opinion, than one that isn’t based on anything real.