One of the important and imperative skills in journalism is to clearly differentiate between opinions and facts, and present opinions as opinions and facts as facts. A fact is something that can be proven true, whereas an opinion could be a feeling, belief, judgement, assumption or preference that is NOT found on proof or certainty.
Our lives are surrounded by opinions. There is nothing wrong with opinions, but they are not universal truths. My passion in investment has taught me an important lesson; separate facts from opinions and vice versa, and be skeptical and doubtful about every opinion.
What I have found particularly helpful when I share or listen to others’ opinions is to investigate where these opinions are coming from. Are they being pulled out of thin air or result of thorough research, reflection and thinking?
"I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong." —
Richard Feynman, Noble Prize Winner in Physics in 1965