Stop Listening To People that Agree With You

Do you know what a "yes-man" is? It's the person that rich/famous/powerful people keep around because, even if they won't admit it, that individual feeds their ego by always making them feel as if they are the smartest person in the room by agreeing with them.

...also known as a cosigner.

Even for the more common of us, typically there is a yes-man or yes-woman in your life. Your mother doesn't count. She thinks you're the best because she loves you. I'm talking about that friend that never really challenges your thinking.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly want someone around who just tells me I'm the best all the time. It gets old. I've actually had issues dating someone who told me how supercalifragilistic I was three times per hour.

Before I get off track...

Agreeing with someone is OK. Agreeing with someone by default is weird, or politically motivated, or a trap.

Now in the context of the title of this blog, I mean this - you should seek out information from people who challenge you, not just affirm your beliefs.

You know why Fox News is whack-as-fuck but simultaneously very successful?
Because they tell people what they want to hear and that's it. They tell right-wing people things from a far right-wing perspective. So their viewers can watch and say "hell yeah we need to get these Commies out of America! *burp* Bring me some more beer, Laverne!!" - but what do their viewers gain from that other than validation?

Everyone doesn't need to be validated in everything they think. To grow and to learn, you have to be exposed to information you didn't already have and thought patterns you didn't naturally come up with. Only then can you be challenged to think differently from time to time, and learn to understand the perspectives of others.

I hope when you read Real Talk With Dr Hak that you do think I make a lot of sense... OK, that I make at least 51% sense... and occasionally I will say something that will make your feelings validated and that's cool. But I hope the perspective presented to you will not always be something you agree with, and that maybe... just maybe, you'll learn something one of these days.

It that isn't how it happens, and if every time you read this blog you feel like "that's exactly what I was talking about yesterday" - I'd recommend you diversify your reading sources.

It's pretty dangerous to only listen and talk to people who agree with you. What if you're going to do something dangerous or suicidal? If you have a yes-man for a frienf and they agree with you, you're going to end up getting hurt. Cherish your friends who care enough about you to tell you when you're wilding.