Admitting wrong is hard, but doable

But

Admitting wrong — when you KNOW other’s won’t even understand it — is very very hard

 

This is because there’s infinite many reasons to hold a certain position

And infinite many reasons to hold opposing position

You hold it for some specific own reason

If that reason is proven to have been misguided — you are now ready to admit that you were wrong

You now have a new reason as to why you were wrong, and why the opposing position was actually right

HOWEVER,

That reason you have is STILL at odds with most the reasons OTHERS HAVE, to hold that position

 

Get it?

You bought a green-coloured car instead of red-coloured, because you thought green was more ecological

You realise you were wrong, and in truth, that red-coloured car has a more ecological engine

You admit you should have bought the RED-coloured car

This doesn’t mean that you:

-prefer the red colour

-or prefer whatever other spec of that red-coloured car

-you SPECIFICALLY wanted the more ecological car

 

Above example sounds silly, but it’s actually what is happening

Say you had a very specific reason for supporting a certain political side

You realise you were wrong

But this has very little to do with you suddenly embracing the other side wholeheartedly

 

It may sound simple enough: just declare your position precisely

But it’s not

Because you KNOW you will be misunderstood

It’s bad enough to be wrong

The other side already hates you

But if you admit wrong — then BOTH sides hate you

 

Again, this is all very simplistic, but it reveals a PRACTICAL added problem we have with admitting WRONG

It only leads to:

–more misunderstanding

-strengthens people we disagree with

-undermines the good and still valid sides of our original argument

+in some contexts we’ll be accused of betraying our ideals, or our side, accused of being traitors

crazy

 

This is why reputation is a burden

Why public life is a burden

Why ego is a burden

Why fame is a burden

It can all make you more upright and serious — because it will hold you accountable

But when you’re wrong one too many times — it gives you perverse incentive to double down on error, to save face

 

We all have a price

Our opinion, our views, have a price too

Once there is that incentive, that interference with your truth-pursuing apparatus — there is often no way back. Not without first destroying the whole fucking thing, going from being no one to being famous to being infamous, to being no one again

So best think twice before you publicly take a side

You may be stuck with it forever

 

The good news is in your private life you may FEEL just as judged,

But you’re not

Your associations can be replaced, remade

You change and your environment changes with you

And verily it’s best to have extremely little ego around being perfect and always right

Will make admitting wrong much easier

EVEN if no one will understand what you mean by “I was wrong”

 

And finally

The only way to truly become antifragile in one’s adherence to truth

Is to actually know WHAT we want the truth for

If value of truth is ultimately only in utility — meaning that truth is only as valuable as it is useful to build relationships and achieve goals together — then coherence and consistency of one’s beliefs is more important than absolute logical coherence

In such case, once certain belief of ours becomes invalidated with VERY high probability — it nevertheless STILL remains useful to hold (due to coherence and resulting practicality) — therefore THE truth

But if we’re ONLY interested in TRUTH

In what’s the most LIKELY

And what’s consistent on ABSOLUTE basis

Then it only take one flaw to invalidate our entire position

And we must reject it

And with it — we reject our entire reputation

Reputation as adherents, as believers, as priests of the religion of that belief

And we kill our relationships and our career

 

Therefore

Define your relationship to the truth

Define it BEFORE you are in position of having to betray it