14 Things I Believe

In the left colum of my blog I have put a gadget with 14 Things I Believe. I thought it would be nice to mention it here as a post, too. The items of the list don't specifically refer to the solution-focused approach, although some of them, implicitly or explicitly, do. This list is a dynamic list. As I learn, I may, from time to time, add, remove and change items. But I don't expect drastic changes soon because the composition of the list has been relatively stable for some time. Needless to say, I don't expect anyone to agree with these items, let alone with all of them. Of course, your views are welcome. I hope you´ll find some of the items interesting and perhaps even useful.

So here is the list:

1. Effective conversation depends both on a focus on what you want to achieve and sensitivity to the frame of mind of other people.
2. A challenge for individuals as they grow up is to become less egocentric; for humanity it is to become less anthropocentric.
3. Having things to do, being focused on tasks, is generally better for one-self and for one's surroundings than to be focused on oneself a lot.
4. Often, when you become good at something, your 'reward' is that you're asked to do more of that activity. So you'd better find interesting what you try to become good at.
5. In the future everything will be better, even our ability to notice it.
6. The scientific enterprise is extremely valuable and we should continue to improve scientific practice.
7. Negative experiences can often turn out useful but this does not prove that negative experiences are always a prerequisite for improvement and the we, therefore, have to create negative experiences in order to improve.
8. While we may never be able to formulate definite descriptions of objective reality, we can often distinguish between false and falser. We can make progress in finding out what is less true and what is more true.
9. We can derive an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’. We constantly build bridges between our our better pasts and better futures.
10. Superstition brings bad luck.
11. Eventually, all religious dogma will be seen, by most people, as untenable.
12. We often over-estimate the importance of personal characteristics and talents as causal factors of our behaviors and achievements and we tend to underestimate the influence of situations and systems.
13. What we think of as biological races are socially constructed, cultural categories. Thinking of people in ‘black’ and ‘white’ terms is unjustified and unwise.
14. People will, gradually, become kinder and more civilized in the way they treat animals.