Serguey Asael Shinder – IT Professional

I used to be very good at defending my ideas. Give me a design decision and I could argue it beautifully, marshal every reason it was right, and hold the line through any objection. I mistook that for being a strong engineer.

It made me consistent, not correct. Because if you can only argue for your position, and never say what would change it, you’re not holding an opinion anymore. You’re holding an identity, and you defend an identity long past the point the evidence has turned.

The shift was a single question I now ask myself before I dig in: what would change my mind? What result, what data, what failure would make me drop this? If I can’t name one, that’s my signal that I’ve stopped thinking and started belonging to a belief.

The engineers I trust most can argue hard for a design and, in the same breath, tell you the exact thing that would make them abandon it. That combination used to look like weakness to me. Now it looks like the only way to stay right.

I hold my ideas loosely enough that the data is allowed to win. It usually knows something I don’t.

– Serguey Asael Shinder