Judge the contents, not the box

My cousin took a course on a complete system for physical fitness and health, and followed every bit of its advice. She had great results at first. But then she saw the coach’s social media posts, and hated his political beliefs, so now she doesn’t follow that course at all.

A best-selling book on psychology is filled with wisdom that would improve your life, if applied. But a few sentences were found to be plagiarized, or some of its studies don’t replicate. So people trash the whole book and refuse to read it.

That’s the problem with judging a box instead of its contents. It’s seeking “true” instead of useful. When any aspect of a package is flawed, it no longer feels “true”, so all of it is discarded. You lose all of the benefits.

Think of a famous person you despise, perhaps a politician or celebrity that represents everything wrong with the world. Now imagine hearing that person say something you really like. Hard to imagine, right? You’ve probably pre-decided that anything that comes out of that person’s mouth is going to be bad. No matter what they say, you’re against it, in advance. Judging someone as good or bad, instead of each individual idea as useful or not.

Listen to ideas, not their messenger. Focus on the contents, not the box. Avoid ideology.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” Likewise: True is the enemy of useful.