Strong Opinions, LooSely Held.
There’s a kind of advice I’ve learned to discount almost immediately.
It shows up as “just my two cents.”
Or “just throwing this out there.”
Or “feel free to ignore.”
These are throwaway inputs—ideas offered without ownership, without consequence, and without any real desire to see them tested. If you don’t care whether your opinion is taken seriously, debated, or challenged, then the question is simple:
Why say anything at all?
Own your opinion yet be willing to be convinced otherwise.
The problem with “throwaway” thinking
Many people hedge their opinions to appear nice, flexible, or civil. What they’re really doing is avoiding risk. Throwaway input can’t be argued with, because no one owns it. It can’t be improved, because no one will defend it. And it can’t teach anyone anything, because no one is accountable.
Organizations don’t suffer from too many strong opinions.
They suffer from too many opinions that no one is willing to stand behind.
Where “strong opinions, loosely held” came from
The phrase “strong opinions, loosely held” emerged from Silicon Valley, but its roots are older and more practical.
Futurist Paul Saffo described good forecasting as taking strong positions, weakly held: you commit to a view so it can be tested—but you abandon it quickly when reality disagrees.
That idea was later echoed and popularized in tech and venture circles by people like Marc Andreessen, and operationalized at scale by Jeff Bezos, where speed, learning, and reversible decisions mattered more than preserving ego.
The logic is simple:
• You need conviction to move.
• You need humility to survive.
Strong does not mean stubborn. A strong opinion is not a personality trait. It’s a hypothesis.
“Based on what I know right now, this is the best path forward.”
Holding it loosely means being willing—eager, even—to change your mind when new, better information becomes available. This is the opposite of throwaway input. Throwaway input avoids accountability. Strong opinions invite it.
Why ownership enables real debate
Healthy debate requires contrast. You can’t sharpen ideas against vagueness. When everyone hedges, discussion becomes polite but useless. Nothing solid enough exists to challenge, refine, or replace. Strong opinions put stakes in the ground. They give others something real to push against. That’s how teams learn—quickly and together.
Owning an opinion doesn’t mean clinging to it.
It means offering it honestly, defending it rationally, and discarding it cleanly if it proves wrong. Psychological safety isn’t comfort. Psychological safety is often mistaken for emotional cushioning. Real safety isn’t the absence of tension—it’s the absence of fear. Fear of being wrong. Fear of disagreement. Fear of changing your mind in public.
In healthy cultures, people argue briskly, update their beliefs openly, and move on. That’s not incivility. That’s trust.
The market doesn’t value “my two cents.” Markets don’t care how gently ideas were phrased. Markets and customers care whether the decision was right—or whether you adapted fast enough when it wasn’t.
Strong opinions help you place bets.
Holding them loosely keeps you alive.
A simple rule to live by
Before offering an opinion, I try to ask:
“Am I willing to own this long enough for reality to test it?”
If the answer is no, I stay quiet. If the answer is yes, I speak clearly—and stay open to being wrong.
Strong enough to matter. Loose enough to change.
Anything else is just noise.
And wastes everyone’s time.
