The World According to Sherlock Holmes

"I make a point of never having any prejudices" ("The Reigate Puzzle")

That is something we all should try to do, though it is nigh impossible. From our 20th and 21st century, third party observer viewpoint, Sherlock had many prejudices.  But is it really? Or was it an appropriate culture for 19th century England? But really, that's irrelevant for now. I want to address the "never having any prejudices" first.

Trying to not have any prejudice is a good way to try solving problems and a good way to make decisions.  A very difficult thing indeed, as our personal beliefs and even when we try to remove prejudices from our OPINIONS, have been formed from our past experiences.  If all the clowns we've ever seen in our lives have been mean drunks, it's only natural for us to have a prejudice against future clowns.  It is ok to have this prejudice, IF you do the next step of verifying the facts of your prejudices to the problem in question AND acknowledge your prejudice.

Now, let's add "trust but verify" to our efforts in "never having any prejudices".  Trust but verify means to look at the facts, the only verifiable thing we can deal with.  In the example of the clowns, we trust our opinion/hypothesis that clowns are mean drunks. This makes us wary, and careful of clowns. But because we must verify the fact, and we have no prejudice, we will be able to look at the next clown and verify whether they're mean drunks or not.

There's the genius in problem solving and decision making, and in learning even.  What are we being told? What seems to be the information in front of us? Ignore the prejudices against or for the information such as who said them, or in what context they were said. Then separate the facts from the opinions. Last but not least, verify the facts and confirm the hypothesis we formed when the information was presented to us.  

With this method, we're almost sure to never miss out on possible solutions, and we're always learning new things.

I promised above to discuss a little bit about Sherlock's prejudices, as we read his accounts.  No one living today was alive in the 19th century. We can only surmise what life was like back then. Even given the facts of the period, we can not verify any hypothesis we make about life back then.  

But, remember that times have changed. Was Sherlock wrong in having a view of the world as he did? Perhaps. A Study in Scarlet portrayed a totally incorrect view of the Mormon religion as known today. But what was known about the Mormons in England in the 19th century? Then perhaps Sir Doyle shouldn't have written about it.

All good questions. But irrelevant.  The only thing relevant here is, regardless of who said them are two steps we must do to form an opinion, solve problems and to learn new knowledge:

- never have any prejudices (try to or at least be aware of your prejudices)

- trust but verify (deal only with facts, things that can be verified)

Now, go forth and seek your adventures, riches and knowledge.

"The game is afoot"