Reminds me of ”’I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside your heart and head at all times.

Kind of like the old Basecamp vs the new Basecamp.

The two products are “two completely contradictory ideas”

What about those two? A silent man is a wise one. vs. A man without words is a man without thoughts.

There are endless amounts of contradictory ideas in our world. But that’s ok. Oftentimes asking contradictory questions is better than sticking to weak answers.

I don’t have all SXSW context but I keep this earlier phrasing on my office wall:

“Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

– The Stockdale Paradox as defined in Good to Great, by Jim Collins et. al.

ahh…Doublethink – a concept that’s been around for a long time – we really can’t credit Bruce for that one….

Unfortunately not something that most of the population can do.

I’m going to watch the video to get the context for this, but my knee jerk reaction is that this isn’t generally a good idea in day-to-day life.

I also disagree with Andrew regarding whether most of the population can do it. Upon reading the quote, I immediately thought of the many contradictory things you have to believe in to be a member of many religions. There can be some cognitive dissonance if examined, but plenty of folks keep “contradictory ideas alive and well inside [their] heart and head at all times.”

“Unfortunately not something that most of the population can do.”

Does this mean: “fortunately something that most of the population can do”?

I’m confused by the double-negative.

There is no such thing as a contradiction. If you encounter one check your premises because you’re wrong.” – Ayn Rand.

There is no point in believing 2 contradictory things. At least one of them is incorrect and there is no value in holding an incorrect belief or information. Expunge the one that is wrong before it harms your life when you act upon it.

@James, Ayn Rand is right, if you know everything/you have all the available information. But you don’t, what you do have is time and the ability to learn. So until you learn enough about one thing to really understand it is true, it’s to you’re benefit to keep two contradictory things alive. It also is an great way to keep you humble, which is in everyone’s self interest to be so they (or their company) don’t explode. You have plenty of time to gain certainty, don’t let arrogance get in the way; be patient with truth.

Reminds me of the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote:

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

@condor:

Ayn Rand is never right, ‘if you have all the available information’.

@Anon I meant in a business environment people often flip out when asked to fully embrace opposing ideas while looking for the best solutions.

That quote sounds like nonsense to me. Did Jason F post that quote because he agrees with it?

Er in England we call this Ambivalence: wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambivalence but it reminds me of red dwarf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poMWgGC82bw

Surely anyone who has read Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four could not agree with Springsteen? The ‘ability’ to hold two opposing views with equal weight is a sign of self-deception, itself the anti-thesis of the kind of ruthless honesty that shines through anything of worth; design, product development and writing, for example. All things 37 Signals prides itself on.

Dear oh dear.

Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside your heart and head at all times.

That could do with some explanation. Why is that meant to be a good thing? It doesn’t, on the face of it, seem that great of an idea to me.

I don’t think anyone’s saying BELIEVE two completely contradictory ideas at the same time; the quote is about KEEPING contradictory ideas ALIVE. To me that means being aware there are other ideas and other view points even if they are contradictory to what you choose to believe. It’s about not closing yourself off and being able to understand different perspectives.