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Comment by spicymaki | Hacker News Reader

I have this hypothesis that everything I believe is wrong. Probably best not to cling too tightly to beliefs.

There’s a quote in the back of my head which my google-fu has failed to find a source for, but is probably a rephrase of George E. P. Box.

“Everything you know is wrong, but some of it is useful for approximation.”

I thought you were going to end your sentence like this:

>I have this hypothesis that everything I believe is wrong. Probably best not to cling too tightly to that hypothesis.

Maybe unrelated, but one of my favorite sayings is "moderation in all things, including moderation".

Strong opinions, loosely held.

Can you explain this? What is a "strong opinion" then?

A strong opinion is one that makes an assertion and allows for decision making. It’s a little cheeky but the point is that having an opinion is important in making decisions, but be willing to change your opinion in light of new information.

So it is like a boss who says,

  "No, we're definitely not doing that."
  "But boss, the vendor just announced (xyz tidbit)". 
  "Okay, we are definitely doing that."

So it was "strong" because of the word "definite" (it was clear a decision was made) but in fact was open to change in light of the new information? (because it only took a small tidbit to change it)

Is this what you're describing?

Not quite, it’s not about the forcefulness it’s about the assertion. It’s also not about the size of information required to overturn. It’s more about the humility of accepting your previous opinion was wrong.

For example, we might have the opinion at our company that REST is the way to build communications over a stateless connection. If a team presents a reason to build RPC and makes a case, it’s allowed to do it.

Another example might be style conventions. Strong opinions here lead to consistently written code. But in some cases a new style will work better and we can change direction. Or a different style fits this file better than all others.

We don’t want to be so hemmed in by our opinions so as to be inflexible to different approaches to the same problem. But that doesn’t mean having no opinion.

Thank you for giving two examples (REST, and style conventions). I was hoping to get examples from you but didn't ask.

I think actually both examples you gave show that the opinion was not "weakly" held: for REST, you mention "if a team presents a reason... and makes a case". For style conventions, likewise, "we can change direction" but the whole point of a uniform style guide is that the style convention itself has huge momentum and can be changed only if there is a very specific case where it "fits better" (your words).

So it seems what we're really saying is something like "we know what we think, but we think about what we 'know'." (I tried to be pithy but came up a bit short.)

Is that a fair summary? That it's about both assertively knowing something, but also being ready to rethink it (if there is a case)?

Absolutely, I like the way you put it.

I interpret it as taking the best possible decision at some moment but not being afraid to change it when new data is available.

(Substitute decision with belief)

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