Two Underappreciated Observations About Our Exposure to Other Humans

Published on Nov 15, 2026, filed under philosophy. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)

When we interact with others, there are two fascinating things going on that I believe are not as appreciated as they should be.

The first is this:

Some people believe what the other person believes.

This means what it says—not zero, not all, but some additional people believe what that other person believes (and says).

This is a useful, humbling insight: You are extremely unlikely to pick something up from another person for which there isn’t at least one more person—likely many more—who believes the same thing.

In other words, if you disagree, you virtually never disagree with the view of just one person. (If you disagree with me here, well, you disagree, too, with everyone who does believe me.)

The second fascinating observation is this:

We decide—and cannot but decide—whether to adopt the other person’s views.

This means, no matter how wise, no matter how useless the other’s utterances, it’s you who decides whether to accept or dismiss them—and that’s something you do no matter what. (Right now, you—and only you—decide whether to believe me. I’m not doing that for you.)

This is quite an important realization because this is freedom in action—you can and you do decide whether to adopt what another says.

In other words, there’s no one governing what you make out of a conversation with Plato, Gandhi, or Trump other than—you. Plato, Gandhi, or Trump present you with a choice that you have to and that you do make.

Two underappreciated, two fascinating things from our exposure to other humans.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and manager at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, dxsrc). You’ll like my work if you value principled, pragmatic problem-solving. Let’s connect.