Introduction: Why Strong Opinions Matter
In a world where everything gets lost in the noise because everyone’s doing the same things, having strong opinions makes you stand out. We live in a conformist world. We’ve evolved to conform. Thousands of years ago, behaving erratically or differently than the rest meant a liability to the group. Those who thought too differently were exiled, and they’d probably die. Fast forward to today, and our ancient wiring plays out on social media, where a shallow sameness permeates most accounts.
Social Media and the Illusion of Meaning
Scroll through your feed and you’ll see: pictures of holidays (preferably half-naked and with a hot spouse), faux inspirational posts, and images of famous people. There’s a performative nature to social media where everyone is trying to show a version of themselves that looks nothing like the real thing. This, of course, is a facade. None of those posts contributes anything meaningful to the world. So what if instead of wasting time taking the perfect picture and creating the illusion that our lives are perfect, we develop strong opinions about things.
What Strong Opinions Are Not
Interestingly, having strong opinions doesn’t mean being contrarian for the sake of it. There’s actually a technical term for people like that: assholes. Most people like the attention that comes from being loud or deliberately contrarian, but that’s a dead end. It’s like trying to commentate on a winter Olympic sport you’ve never heard about. You might sound articulate for a few minutes, but sooner or later, you’ll get exposed. The internet gave everyone a voice, which allows people to adopt trendy stances for views, but that’s not conviction.
What Strong Opinions Are
To develop strong opinions, you need to be passionate or emotionally involved with something. Anyone can pick a hot topic of the week. There’s always that thing everyone’s talking about, and social pressure makes you feel like you should have an opinion. Sheer passion for a subject isn’t an obligation or about following trends; it’s about love for something or an obsession that comes from within. In other words, you need to be passionate enough about a subject that you start developing your own insights and opinions.
For example, whenever I’m watching a movie and see that kind of CGI that looks so fake that you want to rip your eyes out, I start swearing out loud or punching the table. That’s a stupid example, but I spend too much time thinking about things like that. I’ve read entire books on the topic of cinema and animation. In your case, it doesn’t have to be cinema. You might be passionate about skincare, painting, or the world’s most obscure forms of competitive knitting. It just has to be something you picked yourself and that you love deeply.
The Value of Passionate Learning
Reading about a topic you love gives you a deeper understanding. It makes you appreciate the thing even more, even when you dislike parts of it. While I hate CGI and modern animation, I respect the people doing the work. Even if I want to punch someone when I look at two actors inside a car, where the background is clearly a green screen. You know, the kind where even a toddler can tell it’s fake. Studying something for the sake of it makes you more informed, and it makes your opinions more nuanced. Also, once the topic comes up, you can’t shut up about it, and when you find someone who loves it as much as you do, you have deep conversations with that person to the point that you don’t want to let them go.
Strong Opinions and Humility
This is where an interesting paradox appears. Having strong opinions also puts you in a position where you could be wrong. Since you care deeply about the topic and devoted so much time to it, being wrong hurts. The more willing you are to admit you’re wrong, the faster you’ll grow. Having strong opinions means developing a healthy relationship with failure. In other words, it means being humble enough to admit you were wrong and keep learning. Let me emphasize that last idea because it’s important: without humility, there’s no growth.
Owning What You Know (and Don’t Know)
Have you ever been in a situation where someone asks you your opinion about something and you pretend like you know a bunch of things about it instead of just admitting you don’t know shit. Like when everyone was talking about last night’s football match, and you don’t even know the names of the teams involved. We think people will dislike us if we tell the truth, but in reality, honesty is so rare and refreshing that people will like us more, not less. Even if they don’t like you, they’ll respect you.
That’s the thing about vulnerability: it’s not about your relationship with others, it’s about your relationship with yourself. As paradoxical as it sounds, being vulnerable boosts your confidence, and it makes you more attractive to others. If you’re willing to put yourself out there in a way that’s real and authentic, then you don’t care what others think, because you already respect yourself. Showing your disinterests, as well as your passions, is a strength, not a weakness.
Conclusion: Be the First, Be Real
Maybe next time a topic you’re uninterested in comes up, you’ll tell the truth and say you don’t have an opinion about it. Maybe next time a topic you’re in love with comes up, you’ll be that person who talks for 45 minutes straight about why one director ruined Star Wars. No one wants to be the one taking the first step, but when you do, you’ll grow. This time, the tribe won’t outcast you. Actually, this time they might join you.