If you can't remember a single instance when you have abandoned a strongly held belief…
Ouch. I can't. Even reading the whole sequences didn't trigger any feeling of updating. I learned quite a few things, and it just made sense as a whole. But nowhere I saw something that made me jump "wait, what?", followed by the mandatory Oops.
I probably should take ideas I disagree with as seriously as possible. Surely there is one that will change my mind?
The updating needn't necessarily be instant, it can take months or years. For me, it is never an instant change. Not much "wait, what?!", it's rather more like "this can't be true, let's try to find a counter-argument", followed by "I can't find a satisfactory counterargument, so there may be some merit in that" after some time gap. But after that, I am able to see that I don't anymore hold a belief X which I was ready to defend fiercely a while ago.
Basically, I cannot stand people who will not bow to the Truth.
I always had this trait, but I noticed lately that it is becoming worse, and has consequences. Ironically, the main trigger seems to be the sequences. They gave me a confidence that sometimes frightens me. There are multiple manifestations:
The closest semi-famous embodiment of this character trait I can think of is Xah Lee. I like much of his writing, but he can be very blunt, sometimes to the point of insult.
Needless to say, I do not endorse all these changes. The problem is, while I know I should calm down, I just can't lose when I'm confident truth is on my side. I'm not even sure I should. (Note however that I'm rather good at losing to evidence.)
So, what do you think? What should I do? Thanks.