From R. Preston McAfee’s Editor Experiences:
At the time, I considered “opinionated” to mean ‘holding opinions without regard to the facts,’ and indeed dictionary definitions suggest ‘stubborn adherence to preconceived notions.’
But there is another side to being opinionated, which means having a view. It is a management truism that having a vision based on false hypotheses is better than a lack of vision, and like all truisms it is probably false some of the time, but the same feature holds true in editing: the editor’s main job is to decide what is published, and what is not.
Having some basis for deciding definitely dominates the absence of a basis. Even if I don’t like to think of myself as “obstinate, stubborn or bigoted,” it is valuable to have an opinion about everything.
I try; Lord knows that I try.
[HT: Kottke]
Lou says
Amen to this! As it says in Matthew 5:37 (regarding oaths), “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ …” It’s hard to get anything done if you keep wavering an don’t have a definitive stance regarding an issue. In the worst possible case, your opinion leads you to a misstep of judgment that you learn from.