are you ever wrong?

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Over the years I've noticed a number of personality types who simply cannot abide being wrong. Whether your conversation with them is about the weather, what year ford put hydraulic brakes on their cars or the cause of WW I. The content doesn't matter, they can't be wrong and will go to any lengths to avoid admission of error, continuing the discussion with reasons they are not wrong (spin or whatever) to just ending the conversation. This, in my experience, can be hard on personal relationships and devastating in the work environment. I'm often wrong but I also often learn something I was wrong about.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 20 • Views: 3,273 • Replies: 52

The real question is...can anyone express truth?

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@dyslexia,

I try and live by the words of the great American singer/songwriter/philosopher, Paul Simon:

Quote:

When something goes wrong
I'm the first to admit it
I'm the first to admit it
And the last one to know
when something goes right
Well it's likely to lose me, mm
It's apt to confuse me
because it's such an unusual sight
I swear, I can't, I can't get
used to something so right
Something so right

I have pled more then my share of mea culpa in my modest lifetime. Did I admit to being wrong most or all the time? I'm not sure if I can answer that in an objective fashion. I would like to say that I have ... for the most part ... admitted when I was wrong on most occasions but then again my memory is flawed and kind of weak and I'm a bit biased in favor of myself.

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Asking a totally ridiculous question, Dyslexia wrote:

are you ever wrong?

Never. What the hell is wrong with you?

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after dealing with the folks on the political pages, i can't understand why anyone would want to be right Wink

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Moi? Wrong? More frequently than I feel comfortable admitting. But, I am willing to learn, if it doesn't require too much reading and cognitive skills.

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@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

after dealing with the folks on the political pages, i can't understand why anyone would want to be right

http://wahsegavalleyfarm.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83519315253ef0120a52932e6970c-400wi

They can be quite a feisty lot!

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Me? I am never wrong and I go through great length to prove my point,
if it's important to me. Otherwise I just don't bother after a while...

It was worth to write a book about it though.

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I'm frequently wrong, as is everyone else I've ever met. Even experienced experts generally don't understand all aspects or all the related consequences of actions being considered, even in their own fields.

The first step in learning is in acknowledging ignorance or the lack of understanding. In turn, wisdom mostly involves acknowledging the limits of one's understanding and knowledge.

In directing the activities of people, I have repeatedly learned the necessity of creating an environment in which no one is considered to have the ability to be right about everything all the time, and that the solution to the problem at hand can and often should be considered from multiple perspectives and points of view - and not just those held by those currently at the top of any organization. In my experience that kind of open and questioning culture is usually essential to the long-term success of any organization.

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

In my experience that kind of open and questioning culture is usually essential to the long-term success of any organization.

The antithesis being belief-based claims or axioms are detrimental to the long-term success of any organization? If so I can't agree, consider: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."

1 Reply

@Chumly,

I agree that all men are created equal in certain key elements of life, but not all. The principal of political equality is certainly a desirable one in any society, but that alone will not ensure its long-term survival.

1 Reply

@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

I agree that all men are created equal in certain key elements of life, but not all. The principal of political equality is certainly a desirable one in any society, but that alone will not ensure its long-term survival.

Sorry but your espoused principal that "all men are created equal in certain key elements of life" is contrary to your claim of an open and questioning culture being essential to its long-term success. In fact, an open and questioning culture would be contrary to self-evident truths.

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@Chumly,

You are quibbling and pursuing nonsense.

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some interesting responses but actually my question is more along the lines of a personality disorder which renders the individual rigidly unable to accept being wrong, about anything.

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

You are quibbling and pursuing nonsense.

Go ahead and demonstrate that my assertion is mere "quibbling and pursuing nonsense" by showing that self-evident truths are not contrary to an open and questioning culture.

If you cannot show that self-evident truths are not contrary to an open and questioning culture then I have no reason to accept your claim that an open and questioning culture is essential to its long-term success.

The fact that you appear unwilling or unable to recognize that self-evident truths are an inherent contradiction to an open and questioning culture indicates your inability to understand the implicitness of an open and questioning culture.

1 Reply

@Chumly,

This is the statement of mine to which you are objecting

Quote:

In my experience that kind of open and questioning culture is usually essential to the long-term success of any organization.

I made no absolute claim.

Your assertion that 'self evident truths" are contrary to an open and questioning culture is simply nonsense. Think about what the words mean.

1 Reply

@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

This is the statement of mine to which you are objecting
Quote:
In my experience that kind of open and questioning culture is usually essential to the long-term success of any organization.
I made no absolute claim.

Your assertion that 'self evident truths" are contrary to an open and questioning culture is simply nonsense. Think about what the words mean.

Again the fact that you appear unwilling or unable to recognize that self-evident truths are an inherent contradiction to an open and questioning culture indicates your inability to understand the implicitness of an open and questioning culture.

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@dyslexia,

dyslexia wrote:

some interesting responses but actually my question is more along the lines of a personality disorder which renders the individual rigidly unable to accept being wrong, about anything.

As you can see I'm never wrong Wink

well I'd best leave you to your devices.

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dys, Your primary q about personality disorder as it relates to "being wrong" are two negatives that is impossible to answer. +

Yes, most of us have personality disorders whether we wish to acknowledge them or not, and 100% of humans make mistakes - or being wrong about the choices we make or the way we think.

I guess the real question is how we personally impact other people's lives negatively by our mistakes.

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@dyslexia,

There are people who can never be wrong, (please check my marriage records for a number of them.)

Even when I am not married to them, I meet people, both in person and online, who seem to connect a great deal of importance to being right.
They seem like terrified children to me at times and at other times like they were somehow twisted in their upbringing. (Remember when they asked George W. Bush if he had made any mistakes in his term in office???)

Anyway, I talk with people like that for as long as I can stand it and then just let them go their (often wrong, but never admitted) way.
I have never had a close friend with the condition
Joe(How about you? Ever keep one of them around?)Nation

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are you ever wrong?

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