Admitting you were wrong is harder the longer you’ve been wrong. This is true even if you don’t have an ego thing about it. There can be a deep regret that comes along with accepting you were very, stubbornly wrong for a very long time.

This regret is worse if your wrongness has negatively affected others. People you care about.

Probably my least favorite feeling comes from knowing I’ve let people down. This is even worse when I did so out of hubris.

It’s still 100% worth it to fully accept you were wrong. Every breach in the Dam of Certainty loosens up all other ideas that have hardened, often invisibly.

“What else could I be totally wrong about?”

Decisive action and humble hesitation feels like a tricky balancing act. One might logically conclude that cultivating humility and openness to being wrong would compromise decisiveness.

The reality appears to be the opposite.

I find that the more aware I am that I might be wrong, the quicker and more confidently I can make decisions.

Even the most arrogant person can’t help but smell the dust of vague risk. Even when their eyes are fully closed.