I Was Wrong

I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.

In fact, I’ve been wrong more times than I’ve been right! Why should you even listen to anything I say?

Here’s the thing, though: being wrong can actually be a really good thing because it means you're willing to take risks. The world improves through risk-taking, which often involves deviating from the norm and making mistakes.

Think about it: if everyone did only the things they knew how to do every day, nobody would ever learn any new skills. This means constantly experimenting with new ideas and techniques, and it means making lots of mistakes in the process.

If you’re always afraid of making mistakes, you may never make any again, and that would be tragic. Mistakes are how you learn new things.

Self-deprecating and dark humor can help you get through this. Being able to brush mistakes off with a cynical eyeroll (that’s what usually happens!) is incredibly useful here. You want to be unafraid of embarrassment, but you also don’t want to ruin something you really shouldn’t break.

Remember how I said I’ve been wrong more times than I’ve been right? I just now typed that last sentence over again, and virtually every sentence I type needs to be touched up. At the same time, if I wait until my prose is perfect, I’ll get my AAA discount card and start getting senior discounts everywhere.

I’m in good company. Mother nature makes way more mistakes than she gets things right the first time around.

I’m talking about biological evolution, wherein for every single beneficial genetic mutation, there are countless ones that are either neutral or harmful. Nature tries through the most clumsy means available: randomness. She makes a million mistakes for every single time she gets it right.

There are an awful lot of songs out there that apologize for being wrong. There’s Baby Come Back by Player. I was wrong, and I just can’t live without you:

There’s one of the best punk albums ever produced, the album Wrong by the band Nomeansno:

But I think it’s Fiona Apple who ultimately nails it with this chorus:

I've acquired quite a taste
For a well-made mistake
I wanna make a mistake
Why can't I make a mistake?

Being comfortable with making a mistake can be tough, but mastering this trick can be your superpower. Just be sure not to be precisely wrong.