open-mindedness

There__ usually more than one way to complete a task. I will not stay stuck in my ways. I will remain motivated and open-minded.

Elliston thought consistency less important than vitality and intelligence and passion.

If you open your mind more than you open your mouth, you will open your world more than you open your doubt.

1. A Cup of Tea Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), recieved a university professor who came to inqure about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!" "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your up?

Having an open mind is the most important precondition for creatingnew ideas.

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.

Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.

Say 'Not Yet.' It's best to leave your options open.

... But these skeptics are only selectively skeptical. They think themselves enlightened for resisting all this new proof and remaining steadfast in mistrusting anything that someone else says. But it is a false enlightenment to accept only those ideas that align with one's worldview and reject those that don't.

Just remember that in most things, right or wrong depends on where you__e standing at the moment. My father__ people would have thought having your life__ mate picked out for you by your parents to be__ well, barbaric._ As Talon__ expression started to darken, Caleb added, __o offense intended, but I__ pointing out that things look the way they do because that is how you were taught as a child. And the rest of the world is vastly different from what a child can imagine.

The author gives an interesting naval etymology of the word "opportunity". It referred to days in which sailing ships had to wait outside a port for the appropriate tide, which then was their chance until the next tide.

The patterns are simple, but followed together, they make for a whole that is wiser than the sum of its parts. Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle; reinvent. Build a tangled bank.

Open-mindedness is a precondition for generating new ideas, but focusing on the problem is almost equally important.

The author determines that the bitterest struggles are for one side of the truth to the suppression of the other side.

Create inclusion - with simple mindfulness that others might have a different reality from your own.

The beliefs which we have the most warrant for have no safeguard, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded.

Renewal requires opening yourself up to new ways of thinking and feeling

Some people like living in black and white worlds. Let them stay there. Appreciate all the colors you see in your world though.