How important is it to be right?

[Justanatheist]

It is more important to understand the reasons you have reached your conclusion, then you can recognise where your reasoning has failed if you find you have reached the wrong conclusion.

I think it is like I was taught at school in maths, always show your working out, then if the answer is wrong you can find out why.

 

[Spirit of Light]

It is more important to understand the reasons you have reached your conclusion, then you can recognise where your reasoning has failed if you find you have reached the wrong conclusion.

I think it is like I was taught at school in maths, always show your working out, then if the answer is wrong you can find out why.

Beautiful said

 

[Deeje]

But I find it interesting how easily we can become derailed and lose the plot over something that has no impact on us in any real way. You can learn a lot. About others and about yourself.

I certainly agree with this.....lets all learn...shall we?

 

[Martin]

It's nice to be right, but being wrong sometimes is inevitable I suppose. Opinions can be based on quite limited information.

 

[Heyo]

I like to be right. I think it is important that I present my thoughts correctly and that the conclusions I come to are sound. I don't like it when someone claims me to be wrong or shows me to be wrong on something I feel right about.

But I am not always right. Sometimes I make errors in content or in the premises I use and conclusions that I draw. Sometimes I read too fast and miss things or misunderstand things or impose my view out of context without realizing. Sometimes I make errors in logic. Sometimes I make typos or repetitions.

However, even where I am right, is my correct position so important or is the subject of that position so important that I have to keep driving my correct point home? Should I just recognize that I am correct and further discussion or debate along those lines would become gratuitous fodder for my own ego? Does it happen that being right becomes the point and the original topic of discussion is lost in a frantic effort to be seen as right about some triviality?

I think that mistakes happen to the best of us and worst of us. And at our best and at our worst. Isn't it more important to recognize those errors and learn from them rather than double down and force an incorrect position through.

Do we actually learn better by making mistakes? Does learning in some cases bear some similarity to mutation and evolution. Where some mistakes result in beneficial changes. Should I dislike it when someone properly corrects me?

I think I am right about this.

Being right is important to me. That's why I never dislike to be corrected 'cause I'll be more right tomorrow.
But being right is only half of the way, I also need to be able to communicate that I'm right. That makes me sometimes stick in hopeless debates for one or two posts too long.
Because that is the third half of the way: knowing when to bow out.