Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

“Of all the things we are wrong about, this idea of error might well top the list. It is our meta-mistake: we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. Far from being a moral flaw, it is inextricable from some of our most humane qualities: empathy, optimism, imagination, conviction, and courage. And far from being a mark of indifference or intolerance, wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world.”

This is the author’s central thesis. Schulz contends that viewing error in a negative light is our greatest error. Rather than being a flaw or an indicator of inferiority, error can be taken as a fundamental part of what makes us human and a crucial component of how we progress.

“But by definition, there can’t be any particular feeling associated with simply being wrong. Indeed, the whole reason it’s possible to be wrong is that, while it is happening, you are oblivious to it.”

The author here describes “error-blindness.” Under this condition, our current misperceptions are necessarily invisible to us, and thus, we cannot consciously process our mistakes as we make them. Schultz details this conundrum as part of the text’s many examples of how the human mind is inherently bent on hiding its own error from itself.

“What with error-blindness, our amnesia for our mistakes, the lack of a category called ‘error,’ and our tendency to instantly overwrite rejected beliefs, it’s no wonder we have so much trouble accepting that wrongness is a part of who we are.”

This sentence summarizes the obstacles to accepting our wrongness, and Schulz contextualizes such traits as innately human. The four tendencies listed in the quote act as mental blocks that keep us from witnessing our own fallibility. These tendencies are defensive mechanisms that protect us from having to admit we are wrong.