Listening

is hard. Not because I am uninterested. Nearly every time that someone is talking about a subject that I know little/nothing about I am all ears. The major issue for me is when I have made a decision about something and someone questions it.
Let's start by saying that the decision is between right and left. I have chosen left and am in the process of following through with that. Then a friend realizes this and questions it. They begin to talk about simple thoughts that make a case for right. This is where I have trouble listening. I thought about exactly what they are saying when I was making my decision. Sometimes it is even a very obvious argument for right and I am almost insulted that they would think that I would make a decision without considering that argument first. So I am tempted to cut them off and say that I have already thought about that. Then they move onto the next argument that I have already thought about.
I don't cut them off though because of two reasons. First, when approaching an issue I start simple, so I cannot blame them for doing the same. Second, I can not tell you how many times that I have gotten great knowledge out of an unexpected place about an unexpected topic by listening to what seemed otherwise a worthless waste of breath.
This is why I have such a large problem with people considering others not intelligent enough to speak in front of people or cut people off before their thought is finished. Yes statistically the odds of some great nugget of wisdom to come out of a certain situation may be minuscule but because of the infinitely large variable of another human being outside of yourself; it is completely in the realm of possibility. So listen anyways.