Adam Grant: I have noticed, over the last couple of years, that you seem to really enjoy contradicting yourself.
Malcolm Gladwell: I do!
AG: Why?
MG: Well, I’m more worried about not contradicting myself. So, I would be very concerned if I was still saying the same things today as I was saying ten years ago. That would strike me as being deeply problematic.
AG: Why?
MG: Well, I’d like to think that my current self is a great deal more interesting and thouhtful than my ten-years-former self. Right? And also, I’ve never attached any stigma whatsoever to contradiction. Consistency is surely the lamest of all human virtues…I’m not even sure it is a virtue!
From WorkLife with Adam Grant
I really appreciated this almost manifesto from Malcolm Gladwell in praise of contradicting yourself. Surely as we grow, learn, and rethink, we should form opinions that run contrary to earlier opinions.
What have you changed your mind about recently?
For me, I’ve been working hard to for awhile rethink and contradict my earlier focus on vertical harmonic interest at the expense of horizontal melodic strength. My studies with Alice Parker and close readings of her wonderful books on melody and harmony has demanded that I reconsider what I put at the top of the musical mountain. Now I seek how to create the rich harmonic language I love while paying more than lip service to the melodic line. It’s at the heart of my experimentation in my monthly Patreon projects (hence starting with a purely melodic framework, with a series of canons).