Eleanor Gordon Smith
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And I think that I was not sufficiently attentive to the fact that these guys were basically standing in front of a woman in the street who was asking them to give up the idea that they were basically a good person. And that's really hard.
And if I had, you know, if I had the chance to do it again, I might try to be a little more attentive to what this belief in them was doing for the way they saw themselves.
And if I had, you know, if I had the chance to do it again, I might try to be a little more attentive to what this belief in them was doing for the way they saw themselves.
And if I had, you know, if I had the chance to do it again, I might try to be a little more attentive to what this belief in them was doing for the way they saw themselves.
So this is the lesson that I've found after spending so many years interviewing people who have changed their minds, is that the process of changing a mind is two things. One, it's really, really complicated and hard to predict. And what works for one particular person won't work for another. And there's a kind of
So this is the lesson that I've found after spending so many years interviewing people who have changed their minds, is that the process of changing a mind is two things. One, it's really, really complicated and hard to predict. And what works for one particular person won't work for another. And there's a kind of
So this is the lesson that I've found after spending so many years interviewing people who have changed their minds, is that the process of changing a mind is two things. One, it's really, really complicated and hard to predict. And what works for one particular person won't work for another. And there's a kind of
tricky sludge that you can get where you try to pick apart what was it that actually did this significant mind change, like what was doing the work. And the same thing, aside from the unpredictability, is just how amazingly personal it is. So I spent weeks at a time interviewing these people about the ways that they had changed their minds.
tricky sludge that you can get where you try to pick apart what was it that actually did this significant mind change, like what was doing the work. And the same thing, aside from the unpredictability, is just how amazingly personal it is. So I spent weeks at a time interviewing these people about the ways that they had changed their minds.
tricky sludge that you can get where you try to pick apart what was it that actually did this significant mind change, like what was doing the work. And the same thing, aside from the unpredictability, is just how amazingly personal it is. So I spent weeks at a time interviewing these people about the ways that they had changed their minds.
And quite quickly, I started to feel like what I was doing was really quite an intimate project. I was learning a lot about what they hoped for and who they loved and how they saw themselves and the ways that they saw themselves moving through the world. And a lot of pain went into these moments of mind changing.
And quite quickly, I started to feel like what I was doing was really quite an intimate project. I was learning a lot about what they hoped for and who they loved and how they saw themselves and the ways that they saw themselves moving through the world. And a lot of pain went into these moments of mind changing.
And quite quickly, I started to feel like what I was doing was really quite an intimate project. I was learning a lot about what they hoped for and who they loved and how they saw themselves and the ways that they saw themselves moving through the world. And a lot of pain went into these moments of mind changing.
And it made me realize that I think too often we talk about changing a mind in a way which suggests that the mind is not tethered to the person. You know, when you hear the story of someone changing their mind, really what you're hearing is a story of someone who changed their life. You're hearing someone who radically altered the way they see themselves and the world.
And it made me realize that I think too often we talk about changing a mind in a way which suggests that the mind is not tethered to the person. You know, when you hear the story of someone changing their mind, really what you're hearing is a story of someone who changed their life. You're hearing someone who radically altered the way they see themselves and the world.
And it made me realize that I think too often we talk about changing a mind in a way which suggests that the mind is not tethered to the person. You know, when you hear the story of someone changing their mind, really what you're hearing is a story of someone who changed their life. You're hearing someone who radically altered the way they see themselves and the world.
And that's a very personal thing. So, I mean, I can answer some of your question by saying that over and over again what worked for these people were things that were quite strikingly emotional, things like who you believe and who you trust and who you love and your sense of self.
And that's a very personal thing. So, I mean, I can answer some of your question by saying that over and over again what worked for these people were things that were quite strikingly emotional, things like who you believe and who you trust and who you love and your sense of self.
And that's a very personal thing. So, I mean, I can answer some of your question by saying that over and over again what worked for these people were things that were quite strikingly emotional, things like who you believe and who you trust and who you love and your sense of self.
But I also think it's really important to remember that when we set out trying to change people's minds, you know, both the things I just said, namely, It's astonishingly unpredictable and deeply, profoundly personal.