The propensity for mistaking belief for facts certainly take daily hits as a software developer. "How come this simple thing isn't working? I thought of everything didn't I?". After a while you are forced to realize that belief isn't the same as reality.
It seems insights like this don't easily translate into other domains though, like relationships, dearly held political views etc. We prefer to think of them as based on facts, when in all probability they are merely beliefs fraught with assumptions.
Some people might be good at being skeptics in all areas, but I sense most share my own ineptitude here, the reason probably being that any such (incorrect) beliefs don't immediately come back and bite us, as in programming.
The funny thing about development is what's say 90% of the time you are convinced everything is correct and should be working and it's immensely frustrating because it's not, so you know you are wrong but are unable to offer yourself a more convincing theory and just get stuck until something clicks. But then there's that 10% of the time where you're actually right. And you don't know which one it's going to be. So you have to calm yourself down like "I know I think Im right about this but clearly Im not" but at the same time you have to hold onto that conviction because you're right damnit. Haha.
My favorite example of this is when someone says "Nobody knows X." As though your own ignorance is as good as everyone's ignorance.
Somebody might know X. And they might know X for all the right reasons. But they probably didn't tell you those reasons, and you probably wouldn't believe them or understand them if they did.
It seems insights like this don't easily translate into other domains though, like relationships, dearly held political views etc. We prefer to think of them as based on facts, when in all probability they are merely beliefs fraught with assumptions.
Some people might be good at being skeptics in all areas, but I sense most share my own ineptitude here, the reason probably being that any such (incorrect) beliefs don't immediately come back and bite us, as in programming.