What if You’re Wrong?

Have you ever come across an expert that was just flat out wrong?

Of course. We all have. It would be impossible not to.

Any field worth mastering is going to have opposing points of view. Different perspectives about what’s true. On what works.

And that’s fine. Being wrong is human. But here’s the problem…

Think about your own field of expertise. How often have you admitted to yourself that you might be wrong? Are you really open to learning, to accepting better solutions, to letting go of your assumptions and opinions?

It’s easy to see flaws in other experts’ thinking. But do we look for the same kinds of flaws in our own?

It turns out that our identity as an expert can actually make us less open to new or alternative ideas.

This “earned dogmatism” effect makes us tend to “feel more entitled to dismiss, ignore, or disparage opinions and viewpoints that differ from our own opinion.”

And in a world that keeps changing, clinging to our limited interpretations of reality will eventually make our hard won expertise obsolete.

So here’s the question: When’s the last time you admitted to being wrong?