Free Your Mind, The Rest Will Follow

(The title is a line from a song that I admit I listen to quite often. Real thought provoking lyrics masked in contemporary hip-hop)

So recent research by Duke University states that being humble in your intellect can help you be a better person and this article began trending all over popular media sites. 
Humility is an attribute I have always desired in someone and I try my best to exercise it myself, particularly intellectual humility.It is a mandate, especially in these times of arrogance, post-truths, fake news and a world order tending towards absurdity. 

The ease of availability of information has helped us read a lot of Wiki (and more) articles leading to a few of us turning into self proclaimed experts of what they have read in a night. 
Okay, great! I am glad you have some additional information but you needn't tell me about us by patronizing me, thank you. I like to remind myself (and others, heh) from time to time that we do not know everything and even pundits in a field can be proven wrong. The history of science has shown it repeatedly. Had it not been for intellectual humility, we'd still be following the plum pudding model of the atom, leaving no scope for new theories and hence no growth of knowledge.

This needn't apply just to science, take yourself for instance. It is alright to be wrong, and excellent if you can be accepting of it; that is how you are going to learn, aren't you? 

*Things I Know Well (e.g. messing up)

While one may not always be right, just being conducive to another's views and thoughts, chewing on it for a while, stepping into their shoes to see why they think so is one of the most mind-opening acts ever and those who are open-minded are considered to be better, tolerant and sensitive, right?

I really like broad minded people who can consider a whole range of thoughts without being scandalized. Sadly, when I have done it I have been called violent and creepy when all i was doing was trying out new perspectives! Which is when i throw in this quote:- 
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Ba. Dum. Tss.

Hence, the title of the post. Intellectual humility is a large step in freeing up all the blocks in the mind that hold us back from trying new things.There are millions of things we will never know but that does not mean we don;t make an attempt to learn them. To quote Jack from the 2015 movie Room, "...because we don't know what we like, we get to try everything!" Such a profound thought expressed by a 5 year old ^_^. While I like to try things "for kicks" as I fondly put it, what I really want is a new experience. I believe it will help me somewhere, for what and when, I cannot be sure.

Edit: The opposite phenomenon -  intellectual arrogance and cognitive biases is well explained by Dunning-Kruger with an interesting anecdote of hos a thief used lemon juice as invisible ink for his face. (: 

[Read more at: https://www.today.duke.edu/2017/03/modest-personality-trait-intellectual-humility-packs-punch ]
[Listen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7iQbBbMAFE ]