Ideas are a dime a dozen; they're everywhere, all the time, all at once and it's very hard to tell we're even being influenced by them. I've engaged in some extremely diverse think tanks only to find the majority of of people just want to be heard.

Everyone seems to be an expert, and yet, most of us are not able to complete daily tasks, much less lead others to the promised land. So, why do so many people claim to be gurus or masters of so many things? One of the greatest buzz words of today is "authenticity". I prefer to use the term, "REAL" or "PURE" regarding one's self. My personal belief is that a type of Renaissance birthed from the pandemic of 2020, yet, it didn't birth as much creative expression as it did introspection. The prior is on the brink, but the latter is way to heavy in the noise of ideas.

So now the world is full of people offering a pathway to a new life, a path to freedom, a path to discovery. My own frameworks are entitled with such lingo. So, if everyone is offering the 'way' to success, who's in need of it? How do we know who to listen to? How do we measure the truth of the claims? It's hard. And often too easy to fall into a ditch with slick clay sides preventing us from getting out, so we just walk the same muck to the next guy, thinking "he" may have "the" answer we're looking for. The real solution begins with knowing how we are influenced and then we may be able to make better decisions on who we follow.

The way we engage with ideas profoundly influences our beliefs, decisions, and the directions we choose in life. Every thought we entertain carries the potential to shape who we are and how we see the world. Many of us are quick to accept concepts simply because they reach us first. Familiarity brings comfort, creating a natural resistance to alternative viewpoints. These differing perspectives are not necessarily flawed, but they challenge what we have already invested time and energy into believing. Defending the initial idea becomes less about its truth and more about preserving our attachment to it.

This phenomenon often arises from the anchoring fallacy, a cognitive bias where the first information encountered becomes the foundation for all future judgments. When we build our understanding on an initial belief, we rarely consider that it might be incomplete, limited, or even incorrect. Ideas and beliefs adopted early in the process tend to solidify, not because they are infallible, but because they feel personal. Questioning them threatens the foundation we have constructed, and so we hold on. The more energy we pour into validating these beliefs, the harder it becomes to entertain opposing perspectives. Protecting these ideas becomes a reflex, even when better alternatives exist.

A similar dynamic shapes how we choose the voices we follow. When we find someone whose ideas resonate, there is a tendency to absorb their words without much scrutiny. We consume their opinions as if they are universal truths, leaving no space for critical reflection. The alignment we feel with their perspective often blinds us to the need for evaluation. Over time, we mistake the satisfaction of agreement for true understanding. The more we immerse ourselves in their worldview, the more it feels like the only reasonable one, and anything outside it begins to feel irrelevant or even wrong.

This pattern becomes especially dangerous when applied to thought leaders who present themselves as authorities in personal transformation, freedom, or success. Their language is often polished, their arguments compelling, their presence magnetic. They create the illusion of expertise, offering answers to questions we may not have even known to ask. Yet, we rarely stop to consider, “How did they come to know these things?” The ability to articulate ideas effectively is not the same as living through the challenges those ideas address. Without evidence of personal experience,