Ten Ideas Not Cast In Stone (Inspired by "Sunscreen")

• Knowledge is a process. That is the first thing you need to know. It is a lifelong endeavour and should be constantly checked for relevance. If the world changes and your ideas don't you will get left behind. "Stay hungry, stay foolish".
• Be open to all ideas no matter where they come from, but be wary of those ideas whose proponents demand a protected or privileged position. Truth will stand up to any amount of criticism, debate and ridicule without special protection.
• It is important to have your own reasons for what you believe to be true, but there is nothing wrong with consensus. Neither is there anything wrong with intuition so long as you recognise it as such.
• It will serve you well to be sympathetic to ideas held by others, even those which you perceive to be mistaken. The route by which they have arrived at them is informed by different experiences to your own.
• Take at least some time to study a little formal Logic. You will be amazed at how soon you you find yourself using it to determine the strength, (or otherwise), of people's arguments.
• Try to understand people's motives. It gives an extra dimension to what they say and do. Likewise be critical of your own motives.
• Strive to keep a balance in your life between Competition and Co-operation. Too much of either will weaken you.
• You will do well to recognise the fundamental importance of free speech. The free, open and frank exchange of ideas in a public forum is vital for the moral wellbeing of any society. All ideas have equal validity, although not equal truth, relevance or usefulness. Any attempt to control the input of ideas into the process will result in a skewed outcome.
• Treat every person you meet as your exact equal. To do anything other than this is to belittle either them or yourself.
• Beware pedants who use bullet points.