I Want To Be Wrong
Polishing The Edges Can Eliminate the Happy Accidents
The thing about pessimism is that you’re almost always right. “It can’t be done” is generally a more reliable prediction than betting everything will go right.
Inherent in our collective addiction to being right is the underlying cynicism.
If you’ve ever sat in a meeting with the “Okay, but I have a question…” guy, you know what I mean. The verbal equivalent of eye-rolling. Cynicism looks smart because it’s safe, and risk free. It looks like it’s protecting everyone from driving off a cliff.
I’ve been that guy.
The problem with always being the pessimist in the room is that it becomes a habit. It’s not just about other’s safety, it’s about being safe yourself. And safe feels good. You don’t need to stick your neck out. You don’t need to clean up the mess mistakes make.
Children are wrong, but sophisticated adults don’t make mistakes, right? You can only consider yourself a mature and thoughtful person if you reduce the number of mistakes you make, right?
Unfortunately, nothing interesting comes from being a cynic or a pessimist. No good creative work happens when you keep yourself small. You also keep others small. You can literally feel the room contracting every time you find a fault in something.
Instead of “that won’t work,” how about we ask “how might it work?”
So what if we’re wrong? Isn’t that when the best things we’ve ever done happened? The work I’m proudest of, the friendships that changed me, the moments that cracked my heart wide open. None of them happened because I was realistic about the odds. They happened because I stumbled into them. Through happenstance, mistakes, and dumb luck.
As much as I like using AI, I notice that it’s always polishing the edges and preventing mistakes. I’m a little worried that things will get a little too smooth. I would’ve never have started businesses, written books, fallen in love or learned life’s greatest lessons if I’d wanted to be right. Those moments weren’t part of any grand plan. Some were wild experiments but most were a messy accident.
So maybe that’s the work now. Not cynically editing a polished life, but allowing for a life full of tests, happy accidents, and creative misfires. A life where I stop predicting outcomes and start noticing what actually unfolds.
I don’t want to be the guy who’s always right about things going wrong.
I want to be wrong because that’s where all the good stuff lives. That’s also where hope lives. I also believe that’s where healing happens. And we could all do with a little healing.
