"Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open"
About this Quote
A good mind, Dewar implies, is less a trophy than a tool: it has to deploy. The parachute metaphor is doing more than delivering a motivational poster. It smuggles in stakes. A closed parachute is not merely unhelpful; it is catastrophically useless at the exact moment you need it. By pairing “mind” with “parachute,” Dewar reframes open-mindedness from a polite virtue into a survival mechanism, a refusal to splat against reality because you insisted your assumptions were enough.
The line works because it flatters and scolds at once. Nobody wants to be told they’re ignorant; plenty of people will accept the softer charge of being “closed.” Dewar gives readers a face-saving on-ramp to self-critique: you can be smart and still fall if you won’t pull the cord. The subtext is anti-dogma, but it’s also anti-complacency. “Open” here isn’t passive tolerance; it’s an active choice to take in new information, revise priors, and accept that certainty can be a form of freefall.
Context matters, too. The paraphrase-y quality and clean geometry of the analogy place it in the 20th-century tradition of aphorisms meant for speeches, classrooms, and copy desks - language built to travel. That portability is part of the intent: a compact reminder that flexibility isn’t an aesthetic preference; it’s what keeps thinking functional under pressure.
The line works because it flatters and scolds at once. Nobody wants to be told they’re ignorant; plenty of people will accept the softer charge of being “closed.” Dewar gives readers a face-saving on-ramp to self-critique: you can be smart and still fall if you won’t pull the cord. The subtext is anti-dogma, but it’s also anti-complacency. “Open” here isn’t passive tolerance; it’s an active choice to take in new information, revise priors, and accept that certainty can be a form of freefall.
Context matters, too. The paraphrase-y quality and clean geometry of the analogy place it in the 20th-century tradition of aphorisms meant for speeches, classrooms, and copy desks - language built to travel. That portability is part of the intent: a compact reminder that flexibility isn’t an aesthetic preference; it’s what keeps thinking functional under pressure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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