Do You Have Your Own View? – Importance of Your View

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Life is a process of learning. We keep learning to live better. We've learned many things, and we'll learn more.

As for learning, we should keep one thing in mind; your goal of learning is to have your ideas instead of getting satisfied with someone else's.

Person viewing from a top of a mountain
Photo by Pascal Habermann on Unsplash

What is your view?

What I want to say by the phrase your view is what you think after examining your knowledge and experiencing things in your life.

Views are subjective opinions. For example, "I should sleep more for my health" is a view.

There's another concept: fact. Facts are things that are known to be true. Facts are objective. For example, "Lack of sleep harms your health" is a fact.

Why do you need your view?

There are two reasons why you need your view. One is that only you can come up with your view, and the other is that only your view can change you.

Only you can come up with your view

Today you can get various information without effort. You can subscribe to online newspapers and buy and read digital books. You can also easily search for anything on Google.

It means that just knowing the information itself is of little value. Our ancients had no written languages and could only pass on information by word of mouth. In such a circumstance, knowing the information itself could be an advantage. In a world where everyone can get tremendous information at no cost, however, knowing something itself doesn't give you any unique value – unless you have top-secret information at the national security level.

On the other hand, no one has the same background as yours. You have a unique background, such as experiences, knowledge, or a sense of value. Those backgrounds impact your way of thinking, so your view is unique. It's only you that can come up with your view, so it gives you value.

Your view often resembles someone else's, but it doesn't mean your view is of little value. The process of thinking that lead to the conclusion is different.

Think about the view that diversity is essential, for example. Someone may have that view as the person are a social minority and sometimes feels uncomfortable with the majority's opinions. Another one may reach the same idea after experiencing an event where a newcomer with a different background points out an organization's problem no old member has noticed. The message from those two people will sound different to the listeners.

Only your view can change you

Suppose you read a book saying that lack of sleep harms your health from a website. It's a fact. Although we need to learn facts, facts are only facts. It won't impact your behavior, as facts are objective.

If the book says you should sleep more than 7 hours, it's the author's view. They are based on facts in some cases or subjective opinions in other cases. In any case, knowing someone else's views from books or directly from people is important.

However, someone else's views won't change your behavior because they have no subjective meaning to you. Learning someone else's opinion is learning the fact that someone has that opinion. "Okay, I've learned a person is saying that people should sleep more than 7 hours a day. Let's take it into account." That's it. It won't impact your sleep.

Your view comes after examining the facts and someone else's views and adding your subjective thoughts. After learning that 7-hour sleep is ideal, you may think it's worth increasing your sleeping hours. It's your view. If you feel 6-hour sleep is enough because you sleep 6 hours a day and have no health problems, it's also your view. You'll try to get more sleep in the former case and do nothing in the latter case.

Only your view can change – or intentionally keep – your behavior. It's only when your behavior changes that you change. That's why only your view can change you.

Conclusion

Our world is changing rapidly. Even now, Google tells us information instantly. Tools like ChatGPT or Bing AI will make it easier to get information. In addition, thanks to the Internet, we can also express our thoughts online more freely. You can access someone else's views at no cost.

In such a world, we should have our views instead of getting satisfied with someone else's.

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