A quote I came across in school tonight that's kind of relevant to all of this -

"Mental Models are the images & assumptions we carry in our minds about the world. Like a pain of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision, mental models determine what we see.
Our deeply formed assumptions & beliefs can create blind spots that prevent us from looking at situations from new angles. These beliefs become what is “true” for us, creating a framework we call our “reality”. Sometimes we get stuck in our own frameworks, boxing ourselves in. To break out of the box often requires someone from outside, to challenge our assumptions and test our realities. "
-Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline