Main idea

A pillar card kept in a card box doesn't have to carry an idea you approve of. Some propositions shake what you believe hard enough to deserve being kept precisely because you don't know how to answer them.

The exit criterion is then not disagreement, it's the counter-argument. As long as no solid reason dismisses it, the proposition stays active and keeps working against the person who keeps it.

Removing those cards would produce a comfortable box: a few dozen cards organized so as never again to meet what contradicts them. That is the exact opposite of what such a core is for.

Why it matters

It adds a status to a set of personal ideas, alongside what you hold to be true: what you can't manage to refute. Without that status, the selection drifts toward a collection of what reassures.

The test becomes verifiable: a box where all the cards agree with each other and with their owner signals filtering, not conviction.

Nuances and limits

The rule has a limit of use: an idea kept without endorsing it has to be identified as such, otherwise it ends up being quoted as a conviction.

Open questions

How many of these unsettling propositions can a core carry before it no longer supports any position at all?