Open-mindedness...
...is the skill and the practice of being able and willing to consider ideas, opinions, and beliefs that are new or different from one's own.
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Open-mindedness is a "giving the finger" to that Svengali of
confirmation bias which wants to hold us, "protect" us, and reassure us by keeping us in our comfort zone (i.e., a nice place to be and spend time in...but also quite limiting and eventually, inevitably
boring).
Open-mindedness is the steward of our curiosity - we want to know, we are naturally inquisitive, we want/need to know "something new" (for goodness sake, we have shows called "news," and we love [although in denial] gossip).
And then, consider the lack or "opposite" of open-mindedness - close-mindedness. Know someone who is? Consider what you think of them.
"Being open-minded" is not something you were taught or conditioned to be. However...
