I showed up to a thing in a faraway place recently and this guy asked me what route I had taken to get there.  I said something like (and this will only make sense to Jerseyites), "80 to 287 to 24 to 78 to the Parkway."  How did I know that combination of roads off the top of my head?  Because that's how you get everywhere in New Jersey when you live where I live and go where I tend to go.  Sure, you could take a bunch of stupid backroads and go 25 mph through towns and traffic lights, but the absolute quickest way to get from my house to pretty much anywhere is on major highways.  And in my little world, that's really not up for debate.  I'm not open to new ideas about this.  I've tried some different options, but I've made up my mind, and I'm sticking to it.  So the guy says, "Oh, you should've taken 80 to 287 to 27 to Main Street to Stupid Road.  That's the quickest way."  It might've been a product of this "type" of guy (argumentative, annoying), but right when he said that, I immediately discounted him and decided to never listen to another thing he said.  So far it's been working out well for me, though I can't be completely sure because I stopped listening to him. 

The same thing happened recently when I filled out a health risk questionnaire online.  I inputted my height and weight, and I was promptly and simply told that I was overweight.  I've been called many offensive things in my life, such as "scrawny," "pasty," and "furry," but "overweight" has never been one of them.  And while I admit that I've gained a good 15 lbs in the past five years, I absolutely refuse to think of myself as overweight.  That being said, I immediately discounted anything else this stupid questionnaire had to offer (such as the never-before-heard "diet and exercise") and finished it as quickly as possible. 

It's not that I won't discuss differing opinions with people or won't accept new ideas, it's that I've made up my mind on certain simple issues, and if someone or something tries to disagree with me, I'll stop listening.  I think that's fair.