Tip # 9 – Surround yourself and interact with people who challenge your views
This tip actually has resonated more with me recently, as I just had a conversation about the topic with Robert Ballantyne. I have always been more successful in life whenever I surround myself with people who teach me new things and challenge my own views of the world. That’s one of the reasons why I am an academic, why I did a PhD and why I am so excited with social media.
Social media is a field that I entered without knowing absolutely anything. I used to read blogs once in a while, but I never really paid attention. My first foray into trying to understand the field of internet and society came when I stumbled across danah boyd’s work. She has completed her PhD now at University of California Berkeley, and I was always interested in what she had to say.
The great thing about having smart people who will be always teaching you something (and to whose development you can also contribute) is that your brain never gets stale. That’s one of the best things I ever did – I always made sure to spend time having intellectual discussions with my students, with other faculty members, with my peers, etc.
Many people see me as a socialite in the Vancouver tech/social media scene. That’s true, to a certain extent. The socialization part is something I have enjoyed because of my personality, but it is the many opportunities to learn what keeps me in this world. I have learned SO MUCH in the past year that you could not ever imagine.
If you want to be productive, surround yourself with people who challenge your views, offer alternate viewpoints and give you opportunities for growth.
Related posts:
- Home is not a place: It’s people
- I connect people for a living!
- The TechItAway challenge for @HamberTech
- I’ll take the Buzz challenge :-)
- Understanding some people through other people
Right on Raul … good words to live by.
The world is full of sycophants, and other things that start with “s” lol.
Living on the edge is much more productive, not to mention exciting.
Challenge and be challenged every day.
Good tip.
Exactly. I’m not a fan of silos. Not good for my intellectual development. Besides, I make waaaaaaaay more interesting friends when I go outside my comfort zone and engage those with different views.
That said, it’s actually quite difficult to find someone who disagrees with me 100 per cent on any particular issue. When you delve further into a discussion, you typically find SOME point of commonality, even if the conclusions are different. This comes up a lot in my political discussions.
wow this tip is a gem!