In a recent episode of the “Hidden Brain” podcast, host Shankar Vedandam had Adam Grant on as a guest. They were discussing some details in the history of the Vietnam War and how things unfolded, and Adam said something that I thought was fascinating, but it was right in line with how he thinks. He said:
“And my understanding is most historians and political scientists now will tell you that’s exactly what happened.”
The details of the argument aren’t relevant here. In fact, I just want to focus on two words that he said: “my understanding”.
If you listen to Grant very often, you’ll find that he is two things:
- Brilliant
- Open to being wrong and learning from it
Those two are very closely related. As I’ve shared on here for nearly a decade, smart people are the most likely to change their mind. Or put another way, if you find new information that proves you wrong, are you willing to change your mind?
In Grant’s case, he didn’t say “this is what happened”. Instead, he said “my understanding is…”, indicating that he’s open to having his interpretation changed if you present him with new facts.
Adam Grant tends to be right a lot of times, but I’m confident he would attribute much of that to his willingness to listen and change perspectives when the facts show that he should.
