Great article, Jeremy. I've often pondered this; especially after arguing my opinion against someone else's. I guess the first step is realizing that you have a problem, though :)

Great to hear from you. Yes yes, the first step is chanting the mantra "I wouldn't put it past me." or otherwise "No matter how hard I chase the truth, it will never catch me." or "What I laugh at on others today, I'll end up wearing tomorrow," or "there even with the grace of God go I."

And not to put too dull a point on it, notice how counterproductive it can be to acknowledge that you might have blind spots when dealing with someone who doesn't know that they do:

You: Wait, my friend, let's deescalate a bit here. You and I are getting awfully bullheaded. Let me confess right now that I could be wrong. I admit that I have biases and can't see perfectly. It's possible I may be wrong. So how about you? Do you agree?

Him: Finally something we both can agree upon. Yes I admit you have biases and can't see perfectly. You may well be wrong.

The moral: In fights you must win, stand your ground unless your wrong. How can you tell if you're wrong? It's easy! You're wrong today if you failed tomorrow!

Not easy? Well take comfort. Some day it may well be easy to know whether you were wrong today.

Yes...and after going through your "I'm right" dance, should you prove to have been (to be, to become?) wrong tomorrow, FESS UP. One of my least favorite things is when people still try to defend their positions even after finding out that they are wrong. Just suck it up, admitt your mistake (learn from it as well) and move on. Or else you can just always give this disclaimer you mention above, but that might make you into sort of a coward, as you say - "dull."

Unfortunately, respect doesn't always come to those who admitt their mistakes :(

Thank you for staying in touch Cindy. I love getting your comments here. I came up with the pun above and I think there's something to it. Not over-reacting being spin into doubt by the least little contradictory evidence but also not being stubborn. In one of these articles I started to list the qualities that would make someone cool calm and corrected or correctable. But see if you can add to it. What practices can someone adopt to cultivate that ability? Needless to say many of us don't want to cultivate it. If you're correctable on one thing, what's to keep your whole world view from caving in on you? Scary thought. Everything you know is wrong. But like gamblers, these folks tend to dig themselves ever deeper into the whole.

Jeremy