There is a specific brand of charm about individuals who always seem to be right about their opinions. This brand of charm entertains a few infamous attributes. First, it veils a great dose of intellectual dishonesty because it leaves no room for reasonable discourse and pragmatism. Second, convictions cost the convinced disconnection from others. Third, charm as a concept has a very short lifespan if it’s not built on top of inherent values and intellectual curiosity.

If one has a modest sense of own rightness, and if there is a belief that solutions are generally a competition between half-truths, then one needs opinions of people on the other side. Because valuing dissimilarity of tastes locates great ideas that come from balanced tensions.

Ultimately, the character of a person is the basis of his/her opinions. Pragmatism regards a fundamental modesty to know that you might be half wrong. If you have an egotistic latitude that dictates I’m always right and others are always wrong, then that’s a failure of modesty about one’s sense of rightness or wrongness. Failure of modesty is at the core of the misleading charm.