The ability to admit being wrong is one of the most important virtues, and it is extremely difficult. It should be emphasized in families and schools alongside standard virtues like honesty, sharing, and kindness, starting as young as possible.
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Replying to @AlanLevinovitz
There is some weird counterbalance to this that some people believe that evidence you’ve ever been wrong means you’re not as smart, or smart people are wrong less. It is an impossible standard. The effect seems to be to encourage pigheadedness to avoid loss of this status n
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Replying to @MarkHoofnagle @AlanLevinovitz
There's also this, at least in punditry. When I was an invited speaker at the Trottier Symposium 10 years ago, I participated in a panel discussion. One of the panelists pointed out how TV producers pick pundits who exude the most confidence and make the most concrete statements.
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In other words, in punditry, expressing nuance or uncertainty is strongly disincentivized. If you do it too much, you will find yourself not being invited to be on the various talking head shows.
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Basically, if you never, ever admit that you are wrong, and express your views with overweening confidence, justified or not, you'll find yourself on more TV and radio gigs, because the conflict and arguing are what the producers are after, not a nuanced discussion.
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Basically, what I'm saying is that the media models and rewards certainty coupled with a refusal ever to admit error, and people naturally pick up on that. The whole media landscape has become The McLaughlin Group.
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Actually, strike that. The entire news and punditry media landscape in 2020 has become The McLaughlin Group on steroids and methamphetamine.
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