Being Wrong Is Fine

Without being deliberately boastful, I can tell you that I'm a pretty smart fellow. I have a lot of knowledge about a lot of stuff, and I actively use what I know to fill in gaps that make logical sense to me. This knowledge depth and my command of how to deliver it impresses a lot of people, and some of them think I'm a master of everything and know everything. I never claim to know everything, and I acknowledge that I'm wrong sometimes about my logical deductions regarding the gaps in my knowledge. I'm always interested in correcting whatever it is I don't know with actual facts so that I can be correct. I have no qualms over changing my mind.

Thing is, when people that I deal with learn that I don't know something or I get something wrong, it suddenly becomes a monumental event. They're all "we need to mark this down as the day you don't know something." It's like the incident, if you want to call it an incident, means more to them than to me. Really, being wrong isn't an issue.

I think the reason I complain sometimes about people being "stupid" has little to do with their level of knowledge. Most of the people I shake my head over are generally unwilling to learn what they did wrong so they always make me do it, or they are so stubborn, they refuse to change their ways or knowledge and cannot comprehend that what I'm telling them is true. Any contradiction to what they believe is considered to be wrong, and they want another answer. "That doesn't make sense" is an extremely common phrase, and even when I explain how I know it to be true, they cannot get past their prior knowledge to accept it.

On this, Doctor Who has a lot of good stuff in it, and occasionally, you get such a gem that it's worth keeping around. In the Satan Pit when confronted with the idea that they are dealing with something like Satan who could have existed prior to the universe, the Doctor came back with this one:

"I... believe. I believe I haven't seen everything, I don't know. It's funny, isn't it? The things you make up—the rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe I'd believe it, but before the universe... that's impossible. It doesn't fit in my rules. Still, that's why I keep travelling. To be proved wrong."

I love that. Consider the implications of that. A thousand year old time traveler knows just about everything about everything, but looks forward to a time when he can be proven wrong. Why? Because that's learning. Never stop learning. Always be open to the possibility that there is something that can show you something that shakes your beliefs - your personal set of rules. Anytime someone tells me I am wrong about something, I always ask them to explain. This is not to confront them or challenge them, but I honestly want to know their facts and weigh them against my own. I am always open to being wrong if someone can show me how.

This goes right with what we learn from Mythbusters: Failure is always an option. Consider that. Humanity generally hates failure, but when it comes to failure versus success, you get something from each avenue. Yes, from a psychological perspective, we prefer successes and would rather remember them, but failure at least shows us how not to do something. Granted, failure to successfully land a plane might not give you a second chance, but in most cases, we can use the failure data to move forward.

The people I spoke of earlier? They cannot be proved wrong. They can't accept it. They also don't know how to deal with failure. Failure to them is a catastrophe where to me, it just means I have to change something and try again.

The people around me who seem to bask in the glow of my genius (I'm seriously not making this up) can mark all they want in their calendars, but for me, it's just another learning experience. I am to the point where I just embrace it for all it's worth.

Never stop learning. Every day can teach something new. Always keep that brain busy.