Last week I wrote an article

describing what events were taking place at this year’s Consumer

Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and more specifically I was talking

about a surge in the a segment of the notebook computer market, now

known as ultrabooks.

I received a few comments on that

article; one commenter specifically called me out on every point of

the article. I simply couldn’t figure out why they felt so

passionate about the topic. Why did it matter that they were right

and I was wrong? We were just talking about computers after

all.

I’ve come to a three possible

answers for this question. The first, I was wrong. After all, who

am I? An undergraduate at Iowa State, somewhat naive at times, and

still inexperienced in the huge world around me. Of course I could

easily be wrong.

Because in this article I took a

shot at the Apple iPad, the second option, which goes hand in hand

with the third, is that I called it a trend. In another article I

even explained how the majority of users are “doing it wrong,”

hence my favoring these new “ultrabooks.”

These shots hit a few people where

it hurts most: their pocket book. There’s nothing more

disappointing than someone telling you that the purchase you made

is the wrong one. In fact, this is so much that marketing

departments in companies around the world spend billions of dollars

every year convincing you to not only buy their products but, after

you buy them, to make sure you feel good about the

decision.

Because after all, who wants to be

told that their decision was wrong, uncool or unwise. And that

brings me to that third point, people become so protective of their

decisions that it creates a bias.

This bias extends not only to their

future purchase decisions, but to their rationalization and can

even affect their social life in general. You may have heard this

referred to as “fanboy”-ism, but in my opinion, it’s a bias. And

it’s getting rather annoying.

Bias is all around us: Ford vs.

Chevrolet, Apple vs. PC, PS3 vs Xbox. There comes a point when

carrying on a conversation with friends and colleagues with what

started as an innocent conversation over various subjects turns

into a heated debate over one issue or another. “I’d never buy a

Ford.” Well why not? “Because they suck!”

It’s all fun and games when it’s a

product or a food or something that doesn’t really have any

consequence to the people around you, but when bias gets dragged

into the larger issues involving politics, religion and other

philosophies, it becomes enraging.

I’m about to generalize, but have

you ever heard an extremist Christian or an extremist atheist

argue? (Note that I’m talking about the extreme varieties, rather

than the entirety of either group.) Or political commentators on

Fox News/CNN/MSNBC? They don’t listen to the other’s point of view.

How can you have an objective conversation about each other’s

philosophical views without listening to the other’s points of

view?

I’ve heard many say that you’ll

never be able to change another person’s point of view through a

debate or speech and that’s exactly right. It can’t be done because

each side is typically too stubborn to declare their ignorance or

concede defeat.

Personally, I love the fact that

when it comes to the big issue questions such as how the universe

was created, I am truly ignorant. I wasn’t there, I don’t know how

it happened, and quite frankly neither were you. So let’s both use

that to our advantage: We don’t know what happened, but let’s share

our ideas as to what could have happened and see where it takes

us.

It seems that the older we become,

the more entrenched into our viewpoints we become. Watch the news,

listen to people argue, and you’ll soon see that rarely do these

conversations go anywhere.

So with this 2012 election quickly

approaching, I not only suggest, but I beg of you: Try to be open

minded, talk to your friends, and don’t be afraid to be wrong.

You’ll quickly find that being humble in declaring ignorance will

get you farther than being a stubborn jackass.