On realizing a balance between two conflicting needs...

*"It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you're in deep trouble.

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress.

On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all.

Some ideas are better than others. The machinery for distinguishing them is an essential tool in dealing with the world and especially in dealing with the future. And it is precisely the mix of these two modes of thought that is central to the success of science."

*from "The Burden Of Skepticism" by Carl Sagan

I am currently reading Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer.  He credits Carl Sagan's lecture "The Burden Of Skepticism" as a beacon for him.  This quote is at the beginning of the book, and I found it to ring true as guidance for people living in a world of theories presented as facts and facts misinterpreted and presented as truths.  These guide our everyday beliefs and affect the choices we make when it comes to our health and what we believe about ourselves, our society, and other societies.  In fact, we are inundated with them.

...