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Speaking a mistruth and lying are not the same thing. I sometimes think I'm telling the truth, but my facts are wrong. I'm not trying to deceive. I'm not just

Speaking a mistruth and lying are not the same thing. I sometimes think I'm telling the truth, but my facts are wrong. I'm not trying to deceive. I'm not just pulling things out of my butt, either. For example, I spend a lot of time researching new technologies, but rarely have the time to become proficient with them. This is very similar to the kind of learning you may do in a classroom; I've never made an electromagnet, but thanks to my physics class I can tell you about them. Sometimes I say something incorrect. Sometimes someone with more experience disputes my claims and I don't have the knowledge and experience to rebut them, or to know if they're really right. Modern society is founded on feeding off of each other's knowledge and experiences; if we all spoke only about what we knew very well, and first-hand, we'd say all very little. I'm humble enough to admit when I'm wrong, but I'm trying to be wrong less often. It makes me look incredible.

drivebyacct2 16y ago
I guess I still don't understand what you're looking for as an answer. Logically there are only a few paths to "be wrong less often". 1. Become an expert in everything. 2. Stop talking about the things that you're unsure of. 3. Preface the things you're unsure of with "I'm unsure, but I think". If you're worried about looking incredible (and not in the good connotation) because you are saying too many things along the lines of "I think..." then stop doing it or learn to be confident that your expertise in the places where you have it will shine. What others paths are there here for "be[ing] wrong less often"? Am I missing some hidden deeper question at play here?
- Robin_Message 16y ago
  4. Get better at generalising knowledge and reasoning to new areas. When you get it wrong, look at why. Were you missing a crucial fact? Then how could you have found that fact out, and other facts like it. Is your reasoning faulty? Get better at reasoning. Did you make an unfounded assumption? Check your assumptions better. Did you ignore something without good reason? Don't. Is their something special about working in this field? Learn that stuff. Are you expected to have background knowledge? Grab some of that. ... I guess that's really a solution to 1 though.
- spiffytech 16y ago
  I do preface things I'm unsure of as you suggest, but sometimes I'm wrong about things I am sure of. I'm trying to figure out whether this is a problem with my definition of "sure of", whether I just need to do more research and get more experience on topics in general before talking about them, or whether there's some indication I may not know what I'm talking about that I just haven't found yet. I'm asking in the hopes that other people have solved this problem for themselves, and could say how.
  - drivebyacct2 16y ago
    If you were misinformed or were just simply plain wrong (aka you thought you knew something as solid fact) then... you were wrong. Life goes on. I mean, if this is happening a lot, you properly need to question the threshold at which you consider yourself having "known" something, or you need to read more closely, but being wrong isn't the end of the world.
  - nollidge 16y ago
    > I'm trying to figure out whether this is a problem with my definition of "sure of" I should this is obvious. If you're "sure of" false things a lot, obviously something is going wrong. Try not to be so sure of things.
  - Twisol 16y ago
    I generally try to source everything I say, if it's beyond a certain amount of common sense or complexity. Just the act of looking up sources before hitting that button (and often in the middle of writing the post) help me catch most of my mistakes. At least, I haven't been called out on a mistake very often. If I can't source something, I usually clearly note that in some way.
    - Psyonic 16y ago
      I get the feeling he's more concerned about in person conversations, where looking things up before you speak is not really feasible (yes, you have your iPhone, but seriously...)

drivebyacct2 16y ago

I guess I still don't understand what you're looking for as an answer. Logically there are only a few paths to "be wrong less often". 1. Become an expert in everything. 2. Stop talking about the things that you're unsure of. 3. Preface the things you're unsure of with "I'm unsure, but I think". If you're worried about looking incredible (and not in the good connotation) because you are saying too many things along the lines of "I think..." then stop doing it or learn to be confident that your expertise in the places where you have it will shine. What others paths are there here for "be[ing] wrong less often"? Am I missing some hidden deeper question at play here?

Robin_Message 16y ago
4. Get better at generalising knowledge and reasoning to new areas. When you get it wrong, look at why. Were you missing a crucial fact? Then how could you have found that fact out, and other facts like it. Is your reasoning faulty? Get better at reasoning. Did you make an unfounded assumption? Check your assumptions better. Did you ignore something without good reason? Don't. Is their something special about working in this field? Learn that stuff. Are you expected to have background knowledge? Grab some of that. ... I guess that's really a solution to 1 though.
spiffytech 16y ago
I do preface things I'm unsure of as you suggest, but sometimes I'm wrong about things I am sure of. I'm trying to figure out whether this is a problem with my definition of "sure of", whether I just need to do more research and get more experience on topics in general before talking about them, or whether there's some indication I may not know what I'm talking about that I just haven't found yet. I'm asking in the hopes that other people have solved this problem for themselves, and could say how.
- drivebyacct2 16y ago
  If you were misinformed or were just simply plain wrong (aka you thought you knew something as solid fact) then... you were wrong. Life goes on. I mean, if this is happening a lot, you properly need to question the threshold at which you consider yourself having "known" something, or you need to read more closely, but being wrong isn't the end of the world.
- nollidge 16y ago
  > I'm trying to figure out whether this is a problem with my definition of "sure of" I should this is obvious. If you're "sure of" false things a lot, obviously something is going wrong. Try not to be so sure of things.
- Twisol 16y ago
  I generally try to source everything I say, if it's beyond a certain amount of common sense or complexity. Just the act of looking up sources before hitting that button (and often in the middle of writing the post) help me catch most of my mistakes. At least, I haven't been called out on a mistake very often. If I can't source something, I usually clearly note that in some way.
  - Psyonic 16y ago
    I get the feeling he's more concerned about in person conversations, where looking things up before you speak is not really feasible (yes, you have your iPhone, but seriously...)