Is it Okay to Change Your Mind?

We're so critical of people who change their mind. It should be exactly the opposite. We should celebrate them.

I heard a discussion about changing your mind on Revisionist History. Malcolm Gladwell said that he was constantly changing his mind--even about issues and beliefs on which he'd taken pretty rock-hard positions.

It's fun "playing in the world of ideas" (to quote Mr. Gladwell).

Some people are able to stay there. But for me there's a kind of gravity that always pulls me back to work: How does this idea relate to what I'm doing every day? And how will it help me extract the money our clients deserve?

I think asking people about whether they're able to change their minds is going to be a pretty useful tool.

Think if you asked a computer scientist if they had an understanding of AI or how it would be used by Joe Six-Pack now compared to 10 years ago.

What do you think the computer scientist would say? Hell, I bet he's changed his mind 10 times in the last six months.

So I’m interested to see how defense neurologists and neuropsychologists respond to the following questions:

Do you have a different understanding of mTBI now than you did:

• 10 years ago?

• 5 years ago?

• 2 years ago?

• 1 year ago?

What’s changed?

Has that affected your opinion of:

• How much force is necessary to injure the brain?

• Whether all people have the same thresholds for injury?

• What are the criteria for diagnosing mTBI?

• What are the various processes that cause symptoms after the initial injury to the brain?

• Do some symptoms show up sooner than others?

• How long does it take to heal from a mTBI?

• Does symptom improvement mean the brain is back to what it was like before the injury?

People living in the Dark Ages didn't know they were living in the Dark Ages. But once the Renaissance started there was no legitimate reason to stay rooted in the past.

Clinging to beliefs formed in the 1970s isn't going to be a good look for hired defense witnesses.