Not many people knowingly continue down the wrong path. Whatever path we're on, whatever our current mindset might be, we believe it's the right one.
As we move down the road we seek out positive affirmations of how correct our path is. We shield ourselves from distractions that cause us to veer off course. If it's working.....
I think of this tendency to selectively feed ourselves a continual diet of positive reinforcement supporting our internal narrative as a Feeding Lens. In some cases, we get so stuffed with the proof-positive that our narrative (the story we tell ourselves) is right that we close the door on fresh thoughts and new information (unless it's focused through this Feeding Lens).
One extreme example of this behavior is the Sea Squirt or Trunicate: little funnel-shaped organisms living in shallow ocean tide pools that feed off plankton. After birth, they hook themselves onto a rock or plant life and then do not move again—straining water through their body all day to feed off any microorganisms that happen to pass through. Here's the thing with Sea Squirts. Once they've hooked on to where they will spend the rest of their life, they eat their brains to eliminate their ability to move.
Sea Squirts are an extreme example of the Feeding Lens but serve to make an interesting point. No matter how convinced you or I might be that we're right, it behooves us to be open to other thoughts and ideas. Cables matter. Cables don't matter. Tubes vs. solid state. Science vs. subjectivism.
The more we can open the door for other thoughts the greater our knowledge and the richer our lives.
