In the book Getting In, then Princeton Dean of Admissions, Fred Hargadon, shared:
'Many candidates are driven to make themselves look like they know as much and have accomplished as much as possible,' Hargadon said one day after wading through yet another pile of applications. 'I think it’s the rare student in our schools who isn’t worried about impressing and who has a very good perspective on life and is comfortable admitting what it is they don’t know.'”
And this week, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, met with the team at 37Signals to share some business advice. Company president Jason Fried wrote on their blog:
During one of his answers, he [Bezos] shared an enlightened observation about people who are 'right a lot.' He said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy — encouraged, even — to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today. He’s observed that the smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a well formed point of view, but it means you should consider your point of view as temporary."
Where did Bezos go to college? Princeton.