1. The Market Place of Ideas (or simply the dialectic)
Perhaps no idea is more important than the open discussion and debate of ideas. Despite the short term appeal of a 'philosopher king' and the frustration of the 'noise' of the marketplace, the well being of humanity depends on open debate. Indeed, we really don't know the meaning of 'well-being' without it.
I recently read an article about an optical physicist who developed, theoretically, a new microscope imaging technique which would reveal features in cells which otherwise would be physically impossible to see. He and his team of 4 to 6 scientists spent 2 years testing this theoretical technique against any kind of objection, trying to prove themselves wrong. Then they published the technique and explained it in a conference lecture to a packed room of interested fellow scientists. Sure enough, after the session, a scientist came up to them and explained in no uncertain terms why it would not work, and his objection was valid. They needed to go back to the drawing board.
Our own self bias is too strong to allow even the best of us to be impartial. The Market Place of Ideas is necessary for our own well-being.
2. The Pygmalion Principle
The Pygmalion Principle states that people succeed when someone they admire believes that they can. There is a significant caveat—the person they admire or teacher can not be pretending. Typically another can see through that. They must truly believe the other person is especially capable of the task at hand. I have detailed many examples of this in the past so I won't bother to give more. I believe this belongs in the top ten because it is fairly powerful and is vastly under utilized.
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