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How often do you admit you were wrong? (startrek.website)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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As the title says, how often do you admit you're wrong? Is it different when it's a factual dispute versus something more subjective?

I make an effort to concede early if I'm in error. I think because my mother almost never admits fault. She'll fall back to "that's not what I meant" or similar deflections first, and that's really annoying.

The last big factual error I made was about the distance of walking, and that's where I learned about Taxicab Geometry ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry ).

I think some people believe admitting fault is a sign of weakness, but I find it's more of a power move. It takes strength to do it, and people can tell when you're sweating and desperate. Usually it leads to resolving the conflict faster and cheaper, too.

(I expect some people will feel the urge to reply they're never wrong. I'll file that under never admits fault.)

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[–] 3 points 3 months ago

Yes, bad arguments can be made about true statements, but people need to understand that you won't convince anyone with bad arguments, and that discrediting an argument is not the same as discrediting the statement or attacking the person who made it.

For example, just the other day there was a thread about how pitbulls are supposedly more aggressive than other breeds, but the argument they used was "they're a minority of the population, yet cause the majority of fatalities, therefore they're aggressive", which is a TERRIBLE argument that discards all other possible explanations for the observed statistics. It may be true that pitbulls are more aggressive than other dogs, but that argument will never convince me as it's just plain wrong. And pointing out just how absurd the argument is brought up a bunch of angry people asserting pitbulls are aggressive and attacking me personally for discrediting the logic.

I used to work with a guy that would argue with me, and sometimes at the end he'd be like "I actually agree with your point, but I wanted you to be right for solid reasons"

Yeah, I do that as well, I call it playing devil's advocate, it's helpful to be sure the decisions you're reaching are actually the best ones.

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