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Wrong On, Dude!

Recently a group of cheery folks rented thousands of billboards to announce that the world would end on May 21st 2011. That a number of these people still haven’t admitted they were wrong is proof that if we can just tap the power of human obstinacy, we could give up fossil fuels tomorrow.

I’ve touched on this before, but it bears repeating–there’s nothing wrong with being wrong.

Unless you don’t accept it.

Frank Miles on being wrongSomeone asked Thomas Edison why he didn’t despair after he failed a thousand times to build a workable light bulb. He replied that he hadn’t failed–

“I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.”

Finding out what doesn’t work is often a good way–sometimes the only way–to learn what does. And knowing that you’re wrong beats the heck out of the only real alternative in that scenario.

That’s still being wrong and NOT knowing it.

Lots of people have a rough time accepting their mistakes. It dings our self-image, because we tend to think really cool people wouldn’t have made them.

Fortunately… we’re wrong!

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