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Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

I have grown accustomed to being wrong a lot as well, especially online, but it would be nice being right more often too. It's like "Am I really that far off the mark? Maybe I am. Downvotes coming." I like to think my opinions are not that bad. Yet when it comes to investing in other aspects in life ,where money is at stake or making income, I have been right more often than not. So I guess I right where it matters most, and wrong about the less important things. Or maybe I am wrong about those things because I don't invest as much mental energy into having the perfect or correct opinion compared to things where there is money at stake.

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> I like to think my opinions are not that bad.

I find this sentence kind of funny. If you thought your opinions were bad wouldn’t you change them?

I suppose they meant that their opinions are not that controversial or against the norm. I've encountered this when I talk online about car safety, speeding, and generally about safe streets. There's a particular type of car lovers who are always waiting to swamp any dissenting opinion with downvotes, effectively drowning the discussion. I think my opinions are not that bad but for that crowd, it would make you reconsider your priors; if they're so offended by what I said, am I wrong?

Of course "I think my opinions are correct" is a tautology. But what people mean when they say things like "I think I have good opinions" is that they think they were reasonably careful and thoughtful in forming their opinions... that they don't hold opinions just because they read a comment on an internet forum, for example.

IMO.

The problem with opinions is not that they are good or bad, it’s how difficult they are to change. Other people who are unwilling to change “bad” opinions in the face of contradictory evidence is easily observed. If you find yourself never changing your own opinions, then you probably have a problem.

The odd thing is, and I think this is Socrates, that it's hard to tell. Having been won over by the gentle force of the better argument what were once not your ideas feel like your ideas. In fact, now they are your ideas, and feel like they always were.

> In fact, now they are your ideas, and feel like they always were.

Some people don't remember what opinions they had in the past? Remembering all the time I was wrong and learned something new or changed my mind etc is embarrassing, not sure how you could forget all that.

Like, people must remember which candidates they voted for in the past, right? So if they switch side during an election, do they really fool themselves into thinking that they always supported their new side? I don't really believe that. I'd rather believe that they lie about their past because it is embarrassing to have been wrong.

> Like, people must remember which candidates they voted for in the past, right?

I have noticed that in myself, but I have observed in some people it takes the form of “I didn’t shift, the party did”.

They aren’t completely wrong either, political parties like the people that comprise them are constantly changing. But if you aren’t careful to avoid fooling yourself it’s not too hard to do.

“Or I’m wrong, I just don’t know how. I guess when someone’s wrong, they never know how.” -The Big Short, more or less

I’d rather not ever be right. If I am that means I learned nothing, making it a waste of time.

If you've never been right about anything, you might need to reconsider your approach to learning. I think you're doing it wrong.

Perhaps you missed the communication subtext? Once I'm certain I'm right I'm not going to talk it about it ever again. What would be the point? There's nothing left to learn. I'll have moved on to new topics where I don't yet know what is right – where I'm hopefully wrong so there is something to learn.

How would you go to right but unsure to right but sure without learning anything? I don't think that being right prevents you from learning, at least you had to learn something about other arguments so you could reject those.

By being right, sometimes. But I'd rather not be.

If all you ever do is be wrong, I will promptly fire you.

An action (do) is never right or wrong, it just is.

A recount of an action may be wrong. e.g. "He did X" when in actuality he did Y.

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