Keeping track of opinions you’ve changed is a useful exercise. It’s easy to feel like your current views are simply correct and your past views were naive. Looking at the specific things you changed your mind about — and why — reveals more interesting patterns.
Here are some of mine.
On Productivity
I used to think: Systems matter. If you have the right system — the right task manager, the right morning routine, the right note-taking method — the work takes care of itself.
I now think: Systems help at the margins. The thing that actually determines whether work gets done is whether you care about it enough, and whether you’ve removed the major obstacles (unclear goals, bad environment, no protected time). A bad system used consistently beats a perfect system used occasionally.
On Opinions
I used to think: Having strong opinions was a sign of clear thinking. People who said “it depends” were hedging.
I now think: “It depends” is often the most accurate answer available. Strong opinions held loosely are useful. Strong opinions held rigidly are usually a sign that someone stopped updating.
The shift came from watching smart people be confidently wrong — not about minor things, but about things that really mattered. I was one of those people often enough to take the lesson seriously.
On Reading
I used to think: You should finish every book you start. Abandoning a book meant you were undisciplined.
I now think: Abandoning books freely is how you end up reading more of the right ones. Life is short. If a book isn’t working for you by page 50, give it up without guilt.
I have a rule now: I give a book 50 pages. If I’m not engaged, I stop. This has made reading better in every way — I read more, I enjoy it more, and I retain more, because I’m spending my attention on things I’m actually interested in.
On Asking for Help
I used to think: Asking for help was a sign of weakness, or at least inefficiency. Better to figure it out yourself.
I now think: Asking good questions is a skill, and learning to do it earlier rather than later saves enormous amounts of time. The people I most respect ask questions constantly. They’re not less capable — they’re faster.
The shift came from watching senior engineers at a job early in my career. The ones who asked the most questions were also the ones who shipped the most. The correlation surprised me.
On Changing Your Mind
I used to think: Changing your mind too often was a character flaw — a lack of conviction, an inability to commit.
I now think: The ability to change your mind in response to evidence is the thing that makes learning possible. Consistency is only a virtue if you were right to begin with.
This list is shorter than it could be. I’ve changed my mind about plenty of other things — but these are the ones where I can identify what specifically changed, and when. The rest blur into gradual drift, which is harder to write about honestly.