Ignorance Halved or Doubled
Which kind of conversation are you having?
I’m not very good at small talk, the light and fluffy conversations of the weather and other inconsequential matters. I’m not fond of Facebook or Twitter for the same reason — there’s really not any opportunity to actually have an in-depth conversation with anybody (that’s also why I love Medium, how it encourages thought and discussion).
But reflecting on many years of in-depth conversations, I’ve realized that they fall into two major categories; ignorance halved, and ignorance doubled.
If you talk to someone and you learn something new that expands your thinking, makes the world more interesting, weird, complex, beautiful, awesome or amusing, if you come away having glimpsed a different view of life, the universe and everything, these are good conversations. Ignorance halved.
If you talk to someone and its all about confirming biases and assumptions, about seeing people in a more negative and cynical way, and the world seems more mean, predatory and selfish, these are not good conversations, they’re ignorance doubled.
I’ve also discovered that I have to pay attention to the proportions of these types of conversations in my life, because when I have plenty of the Ignorance Halved type of conversations, I’m happier, more optimistic, more creative, more willing to share what I know and what I’ve produced. When I have too many of the Ignorance Doubled type, I’m grumpy, irritable and depressed, and my productivity and creativity plummets. That’s when I need to deliberately seek out people with whom I can have good conversations.
What about you? Tell me about your good conversations (and bad ones) in the comments, and about the people you have them with.
