Rethink: What we can learn from being wrong

Why we need a trusted ‘challenge network’

Dear Rethinkers,

I’ve been thinking a lot about the satisfaction of being right and the discomfort of being wrong. It’s struck me over the past couple of weeks, the amount of effort political pundits, forecasters and journalists have spent avoiding, justifying or concealing their wrongness. Personally, I’ve been wondering what I missed or stripped out in all the noise. Is it to do with how I think or what I think (or a bit of both)?

I’ve lived my life with the deep belief that there are more possibilities to expand our capacity for empathy and learning in being wrong than being right. As the Nobel prize-winning behavioral economist Danny Kahneman explained:

“Finding out that I was wrong is the only way I’m sure that I’ve learned anything. Otherwise, I’m just going around and living in a world that’s dominated by confirmation bias or desirability bias. And I’m just affirming the things I already think I know.”

Being wrong can be disorientating. A natural response is embarrassment, shame and even anger. It requires effort to resist or pull away from these emotional reactions.  It requires a counterforce of courage and curiosity. But errors in our thinking reveal what we look for in the world, in other people, and even in how our mind works. 

Being wrong creates friction, which creates energy, which when used in the right way, can generate movement. So, how can mistakes help move us forward? 

Read on to understand what we can learn from being wrong and why we should consider building out a trusted “challenge network” to further our growth.