Fatal Progress

"Science progresses funeral by funeral."

-- Max Planck

It's hard to give up being right. We latch onto our favorite ideas like a pit bull onto a toy poodle. Reason, evidence, new facts, changing times -- none of these counter forces mean anything to us. We're stuck to our pet paradigms like a four year olds tongue on an icy metal railing. And "stuck" is the operative term here.

And so, progress only happens in science (and in many other fields) when the old guard perishes and the young turks take over. How does this apply to non-scientific type like you and me who know Einstein more by his wild hairdo than by his writings on relativity?

Simple: What ideas, theories, and so-called truths are you currently holding onto until death do you part? Don't just look for bad beliefs, look at all your favorites, especially the ones that are now in vogue, politically correct, and/or generally accepted by society.

Remember the old counter culture bumper sticker -- "Question Authority." Many of us who used to sport that sentiment, if not that sticker, have now grown up to be the authorities. It's ourselves that we must now question. It's our own minds that we must probe.

And so, just for today, question your unquestioned assumptions. Be the devil's advocate and look for evidence that directly opposes your most cherished beliefs. Don't take your untruths, half truths and unbaked theories to the grave. They won't keep you warm when your six feet under. Burn them now in a conflagration of mental flotsam and jetsam. Build funeral pyre of worn out ideas and beliefs and personally progress from there.