Why being wrong is so right...
I am currently 52 years old. When I turned 30, I found myself in the midst of a brilliant and very knowledgeable group of people on a Yahoo message board, who ultimately ended up helping me resolve some "knowledge gaps" I had in the area of human evolution.
Prior to meeting these folks, I was under the impression that evolution was not proven, and that it was just a concept that ultimately never happened. But I was dead wrong in that understanding. And these people helped me learn how the mechanics of evolution work and they helped me put the timelines involved into perspective to where it eventually made perfect sense to me.
But more than that, I looked at the evidence and I understood it - finally.
That process of discovery was a pivotal experience in my life that changed me as a person at the very core of who I am and it helped me learn a lot about myself and how perceived others.
Up until that point in my life, I had been completely wrong about something as important as our evolutionary history ... and I had been no doubt sharing with people what my knowledge was on the subject, and who knows how many people might have ended up accepting my incorrect knowledge as fact...
One of the larger "takeaways" I got from that experience was a very simple realization that I believe every person should hang onto because it is 100% true.
What you know and what you don't know is not a measure of your quality as a human being.
It seems to be a natural thing for people to get upset when their knowledge on a subject is challenged in open discussion online. When someone is proven to be wrong about something, they get upset, they react and often they go on the offense and they insult the person who ended up correcting the knowledge ... they take it very personally ... when they are wrong, or sometimes if they are right, they wield that knowledge arrogantly and they use it to insult someone who did not know ... but perhaps thought they did... and these kinds of behaviors are really childish at their core and are not the kinds of behavior that foster the learning process or the ultimate goal of finding the truth.
Being wrong is the path to being right
What I have come to realize, is that being wrong is not only OK ... it is almost desirable because how could you otherwise contrast correct knowledge if you at first did not have the incorrect knowledge?
If you internalize this truth, you disarm the self-imposed judgment that you hold against yourself when you learn that you were wrong about something that you absolutely knew you were right about. But if you can understand and internalize the simple fact that the only thing that matters ... is that the truth be known and if you didn't have it even when you thought you did ... that's not only OK ... that's amazing because in that moment, you gained knowledge that you previously did not have and are therefore better for it.
It then becomes silly to ever be upset over being wrong ... because being wrong is not your fault and it's not even A FAULT ... it's not a mistake and it's not an error in judgment and it's not immoral and it's not unethical ... is simply is ... and it is also completely correctable and for that reason alone, you should feel happy when you learn the truth instead of feeling embarrassed for not knowing the truth.
When you place an internal value on having knowledge to such an importance to where you feel personally insulted after learning you were wrong about something, you put yourself in a dangerous scenario because immediately you are by default closed-minded and not open to learning what you might not know. And being closed-minded also means you could be teaching other people the wrong information ... and THAT would look bad on you especially if you continued doing that from a closed-minded state where you, yourself remain un-teachable.
Embrace Ignorance
I started telling myself years ago, that being wrong is the path to being right ... that being wrong is not wrong, immoral, unethical or offensive. However, if I refuse to open my mind and remain teachable by anyone, then THAT is when I become someone who is offensive, unethical, immoral and generally dishonest.
You cannot have the truth if you are unwilling to challenge what you know to be true. Every time you have a discussion about something you think you know, you need to ALWAYS be ready to let that knowledge go if it turns out you didn't have it right in the first place.
The only way to know you have the truth is to be willing to challenge it at all times so that it can prove itself as being true or false.
This means that the best way to walk through life is from an inquisitive mind ... always curious about all things and always willing to accept the truth. Never looking down on others who might be ignorant on a topic but instead be willing to walk the path of discovery with them even if you've been down that path before... because it is easier for people to walk beside you on these journeys than it is for them to be arrogantly lead by you. And then, if it turns out that you were mistaken about something ... then at least you put yourself in a position of walking alongside them on a path of discovery where new knowledge becomes enlightening and you embrace it wholeheartedly and you do not place value judgments on yourself or anyone else for not having that knowledge up to that point .... even when you thought you did.
Knowledge is not a weapon to be used to shame others with ... it is a property of life that enriches our experience in life and ultimately connects us with life on a deeper level.
I, for one, would feel offended if you and I were having a discussion and you knew I was wrong about something and you didn't correct me on my ignorance. Because if you do not correct me, then clearly you don't care about me and are willing to allow me to walk through life being wrong about that topic and possibly infecting others with my ignorance.
It is far more offensive to leave someone in a state of ignorance than it is to help them discover the truth. A friend will always want to help someone exist in the light of truth, not the cloud of ignorance.
So please ... learn how to embrace ignorance as the path to the truth ... wrong is the path to right ... and being wrong does not then make you a bad person ... being unteachable makes you a bad person ... refusing to receive the truth makes you a bad person ... feeling so offended that you cannot and will not accept the truth ... makes you a bad person ... don't be that person... be the person who is always looking for the truth in any topic ... view the world through the eyes of a child and expect to be amazed at every turn.