Sapere Aude (Dare to Learn)

Life is a never-ending process of learning what you don't know if you let it be that way. Many years ago I was talking to a senior engineer about a project component that we didn't see eye to eye on. He wanted it one way and I felt it would be better done another.

I have always had a way with words and carried an air of confidence about me, which eased people's worries and allowed them to trust my ideas. I have found this beneficial many times but it has also gotten me into trouble when my idea was flawed.

As we went back and forth I gave a convincing argument as to why my direction was the right one. Hell, I had myself convinced. Him on the other hand, he was not convinced, and finally after I pointed out all the reasons that my plan would work he said something to me that I still carry today.

Even now I can see his face in my mind's eye as he said "some people want to be right and others don't want to be wrong, which one are you?" I have thought about this many times over the years. To be honest, it may have been the single greatest question ever asked of me.

There is a difference between wanting to be right and not wanting to be wrong that I believe the world needs to realize as I did on that day. When one desires to be right they are looking for information that supports their outlook, and are willing to dismiss information that doesn't. It is something, I believe, most people do unintentionally, it is just the way the mind works. We become blind to the value of the contrary data, dismissing it as bad information because we are not looking for disproof, only proof.

I have seen this approach in two major areas in our society. Well, it is threaded throughout our culture because it is a normal human trait, but there are two areas that it is very evident and controversial. Those two areas are politics and religion, for both of them are based on faith in a personal belief of infallible truth. A politician running on a specific platform is trusted to, once elected, govern in accordance with those ideas. We support those ideas for which he stands, because they coincide with our beliefs and one cannot have belief without some measure of faith.

Religion, based on the idea of an ultimate truth which is unproven and hidden by the veil of death, requires the faith of its followers as a key component to its existence. But what happens when in each of those areas, our beliefs are based on incomplete information due to the way in which we seek an answer.

The point of looking at a problem in a way as to desire not to be wrong is to open one's mind up to all the possibilities. Albert Einstein once said, "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong." If we can see all information, including that of opposition, as valuable, we just might find that one thing which will cause us to change what we believe, and intern move us one step closer to the success we all desire.