Yeah, most adults only get something when they're genuinely surprised, wrong or lost. But the problem is, in many of such occasions the changes are negative and make you worse than your previous self, without you being genuinely able to tell them apart. So while open to new ideas, we should always maintain our core values and recognitions and guard them carefully, stoic to surprises and things.
However his narrative sounds more like something of a bad self-deception which doesn't make any sense at all and will probably make him a worse person.