Two scientists can look at identical data and walk away with completely different theories — not because one is careless, but because the frameworks they bring to the data determine what they're even capable of seeing. The philosopher Thomas Kuhn called these frameworks 'paradigms,' but the Stoic philosopher Seneca had a sharper way to put it: 'We suffer more in imagination than in reality' — meaning, our mental structures shape experience before experience has a chance to speak. The practical consequence is this: when you're stuck on a problem, the bottleneck is rarely more data. It's the lens. Try describing what you're working on to someone from a completely different field and listen for the moment they ask a question that seems almost too obvious — that's usually the assumption you forgot you were making.

When did you last change your mind about something because of how you were thinking — not because of new evidence?

Drawing from Philosophy of Science / Stoicism — Thomas Kuhn