The fear of public embarrassment can be a strong motivation to think more carefully about one’s ideas. Without it, I think I will more often be tempted to make a comment or post without thinking through possible ways that I could be wrong. I’d like to preserve that motivation for myself as well as others, so let’s not make the cost of publicly making a mistake too low.
The opening post talks about “publicly making a mistake”, which I think meant making a post or comment that turns out to be wrong. (It also talks about admitting your mistakes, which I agree does refer to “old mistaken beliefs”.) I suggest that we should feel some measure of embarrassment for making a post or comment that turns out to be wrong, even if it feels like (or appears as if) we were being careful/not foolish when we wrote it. The latter standard is too loose and subjective, hence easily rationalized away.
But isn’t being wary of coming off as lazy or unconstructive different than being afraid to make mistakes? The former seems desirable; the latter not so much.
The fear of public embarrassment can be a strong motivation to think more carefully about one’s ideas. Without it, I think I will more often be tempted to make a comment or post without thinking through possible ways that I could be wrong. I’d like to preserve that motivation for myself as well as others, so let’s not make the cost of publicly making a mistake too low.
In this thread, “mistakes” primarily means “old mistaken beliefs” rather than “careless/foolish comments”.
The opening post talks about “publicly making a mistake”, which I think meant making a post or comment that turns out to be wrong. (It also talks about admitting your mistakes, which I agree does refer to “old mistaken beliefs”.) I suggest that we should feel some measure of embarrassment for making a post or comment that turns out to be wrong, even if it feels like (or appears as if) we were being careful/not foolish when we wrote it. The latter standard is too loose and subjective, hence easily rationalized away.
But isn’t being wary of coming off as lazy or unconstructive different than being afraid to make mistakes? The former seems desirable; the latter not so much.