If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

Carl Jung

Sadly, public discourse today seems to have degenerated into warring parties spitting epithets at one another. With little inclination to see the others point of view, the parties are reduced to name calling, labeling and the simplification of complex issues. The only commonality is the shared belief that the other guy is a jerk.

Thanks to Jungs pioneering work on personality type, we know that there are at least sixteen discrete ways to view any data set. This means that given any situation, there are sixteen different, though perfectly normal, ways  of evaluating it. Not surprisingly, sixteen different points of view might yield very different conclusions.

Too often we tend to ignore or demean points of view that dont match our own. Respecting that there are other, equally valid ways of approaching the same subject, can yield tremendous insight and improve the quality of our own decisions.

The next time you run into a point of view that doesnt match your own, pay attention. Dont dismiss it. By the same token, dont assume that different is better. But it just might be, that the different drummer your hearing isnt another jerk; it could be Gene Krupa.