Draconian Overlord
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I'm Never Wrong...Eventually

Okay, the title is of course clickbait, because obviously I’m wrong all the time.

But the reason for the post is that, ironically, precisely because I recognize that “yes I’m wrong all the time”, I have no qualms about changing my mind when persuaded by convincing arguments, new data, different perspectives, etc.

…which leads to “no longer being wrong”. 🎉 😅

I credit this articulation to the book Learn or Die 📔–admittedly kind of an odd name–published in 2014 by Columbia Business School, as one of the hundreds of seemingly interchangeable business books published each year.

But the author, Edward Hess, had a particularly useful thought experiment: what should you choose to attach your ego to?

We all have egos, of course, and Hess’s assertion is that, at a high level, you can choose to attach your ego to one of two mindsets:

  1. Base your ego on never being wrong–always being right, always the smartest person in the room, always winning arguments, etc. Or,

  2. Base your ego, your identity, on being someone who readily recognizes the best answer we have so far.

Hess asserts you’ll be much better off consciously choosing the 2nd approach, and I agree! 😅

At this point, I’ve internalized this viewpoint so thoroughly that even an intended insult like “well you were wrong!!” has little effect on my psyche, and my response is “…okay sure, of course I was wrong, so what?”

Granted, I’m self-aware enough to acknowledge that this “it’s np being wrong all the time!” view can seem flippant or tone-deaf to folks who are starting their careers, or struggling with imposter syndrome.

I.e. I generally have a “large credit balance” of self-worth in my egotistical bank account that means it’s easy, for me personally, to not sweat “being wrong”. And it’s true that not everyone has this same asset.

If it helps, my assertion is that hardly anyone has a truly original thought–we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, we all started as babes in the woods, and must all learn to walk, learn to talk, learn to read, learn to program, learn to manage, learn learn learn (with more “reps reps reps”, read more books, write more code, play more music).

Such that the claim “I learned this idea before you did so I’m better / smarter” seems like a pretty dumb thing to get worked up about. 🤷