Quote · Modern Wisdom
14 Patterns Behind the World’s Greatest Minds - David Senra - #1126
Where this was said
Why Listening Is the Real Advantage
At 41:14 · chapter starts 37:30
The chapter opens with a deliberate subversion of expectations: Michael Jordan, widely perceived as an arrogant tyrant who thought he knew better than everyone, turns out to be one of the great listeners in sports history [1] — David Senra "Most people think Steve Jobs was a tyrant who ignored everyone. Ed Catmull, who worked with him for 24 years, says the opposite: Jobs fired…" 37:10 . David Senra found this documented in Roland Lasley's 700-page biography and calls it one of the books that fundamentally changed his life. The Steve Jobs parallel is even more striking: Ed Catmull, who worked alongside Jobs for 24 consecutive years, told Senra personally that Jobs fired two Pixar board members not for bad judgement but for never disagreeing with him. Jobs wanted useful information, not validation, and anyone who couldn't provide that was useless to the company. Senra then turns this principle on himself — Williamson told him years ago to do video podcasting and he resisted, but eventually recognised that a person with the world's eighth biggest podcast probably knows something he should listen to. Williamson elaborates on the broader failure mode: people who mistake stubbornness for self-belief, ignoring good advice and calling it conviction, are stuck in permanent local maxima. He introduces the concept of 'strong opinions loosely held' — carrying your position with confidence while remaining genuinely open to revision — as the rare and highly productive alternative.
Pixar was a public company for 10 years before Disney acquired it for approximately $7.6 billion; during that period, Steve Jobs fired two board members for never disagreeing with him.
Steve Jobs fired two Pixar board members not for incompetence, but because they never disagreed with him — he saw consensus without pushback as a waste of a board seat.
Charlie Munger's philosophy: you are not wise because you solve problems, you are wise because you avoid them. Find great work, surround yourself with great people, and stay in both for life — that eliminates the vast majority of problems that are within your control.
