The Limits of Perspective: Understanding, Blind Spots, and Growth

Written by Daniel John Dunevant on March 3, 2025, 10:21 am

Challenging Assumptions and Embracing Perspective

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, either online or in person, and thought to yourself, "I used to think or be like them"? The first part of this assumption is that we believe we understand how they arrived at their conclusion. The second part is the assumption of superiority—the belief that our current position is better than theirs. Since our perspective has changed, we assume it must have brought us closer to the truth. However, there is a problem with this way of thinking. If two people both see their former selves in each other and both believe they now have the correct understanding, they cannot both be right—at least not completely.

With any perspective, there are blind spots. We are all like lights shining onto the same object, but from different angles. However, light also casts shadows. We tend to avoid ideas that create dissonance with our own views. Furthermore, we cannot know what we do not know. Even if we attempt to expand our understanding, we can only do so at the edges of what we already comprehend. This model applies when conversing with a single person whose views differ from our own.

Now, let’s consider a scenario where we have spoken with and learned from a variety of perspectives. Would that give us a full understanding of reality? We might develop an understanding of all human perspectives in the present, their interpretations of the past, and their best guesses about the future. But even with all that, are we now information-complete? The answer is no. People—and all things—are inherently limited. We have finite lifespans, limited cognitive abilities, and constrained capacities for memory and information processing. True, complete understanding is beyond our reach.

Recognizing that it is impossible to know everything, we should still engage with people who think differently from us. What matters most is our approach. If we assume we already understand their perspective, we close ourselves off from learning. This, in turn, increases cognitive dissonance when we encounter views that challenge our own. Instead, we should approach conversations with curiosity, humility, and a willingness to listen. True growth comes not from defending our current beliefs but from remaining open to the possibility that we, too, have more to learn.

If you'd like to learn from others then you can join us at the NWI Deep Thinkers. We have a facebook for the group which hosts videos for the discussions we have and the meetup page that I use to post the events.