Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Wow, does this ever hit a sore spot for me. I catch myself doing this all the time. But, worse still, I bet there are more times when I don’t even notice I have succumbed to the behaviour.
Still, one of the few benefits of getting older is that time and experience has given me just a bit more openness to the idea I might be wrong. I continue to work on this every day since, in my view, it’s one of the most important, and most rare, life skills we can develop.
Being able to change our minds is doubly important in the offshore sailing world where so much of the generally believed wisdom is just plain wrong, and the consequences of not changing our minds about a dangerous thing we believe can be so serious.
A special thanks to all of you who comment, which has, and will continue to play an important role in my personal battle to think first about ways I could be wrong.
Great quote. I’ll save that one.
As an evidence based practitioner I often forced to accept that some of my long held beliefs don’t stand up in the face of new knowledge. That has led me to have the mantra that “Sacred Cows make the best steaks”
Hi Mark,
I love that one, best steaks indeed.
I am relatively new to sailing… i sail since Covid, about 5 years now. I have nothing to proove, feeling humble and always open to learning. The ‘truth’ in one part of the world is often not the ‘truth’ in another part of the world, also my boat is different then yours and we are different personalities so your truth might not be mine and viceversa. If we stay open and listen to eachother… we can learn so much ! And maybe we will change our method or maybe not… and maybe the new knowledge will serve us much later in our life…
There is no such thing as a general truth or a general sacred rule but one : Stay humble !
Hi Katrien,
I guess we differ a bit on that one: While I believe your rule of staying humble is totally correct, I don’t believe in multiple different truths. Rather I believe that if a truth is backed by solid engineering, as we try to to do here at AAC, for example, the correct way to rig a preventer, or the right way to execute a bolted joint, that’s an irrefutable truth that should apply for us all.
Today, I removed the swivel between my anchor and rode and the Walder boom brake attached to my chain plates. Sure, it hurt a little, but knowing that my setup would be safer and more dependable felt better. Sometimes, good seamanship means acting like a grown-up. The quote is spot on and reminds me of the “fallacy of sunk costs.”
Hi John,
I don’t have anything worthy of a “quote” title in this context, but:
In most boating contexts, apart from right here at AAC, I’m “the authority”. Also some other contexts. My statements are “the final answer”, which can lead my ego into the same illusion.
To counteract this, I try to remember that not only may some of my statements perhaps be wrong. They are my best try to be insightful, but the best I can hope for is that they’re good at this moment. None of them are the final answer. None. Knowledge will always continue developing. I will never know the final answer to anything, at best just steps towards it.
This sounds overly humble or perhaps even pessimistic, and I often fail to practice it when I should have, but I find trying can balance my tendency towards the opposite. Seeing myself from other angles tones me down a bit, which = fewer dumb results.
This is just one way of describing something many people do, (and more people should do). Perhaps some here might find something useful in my angle to it.
Hi Stein,
Very good points for us all to learn from, particularly those of us who are considered “experts”. To substantiate your thought, one of the things I have noticed is that those with “expert” status on the internet tend to get ever more dogmatic over time, particularly if they don’t allow comments, or do, but don’t interact with them. Nothing like getting caught out being dead wrong, as I have many times, to remind us of our fallibility and so keep us grounded.
I’m also considered “the authority” or “the expert” in many contexts. It’s important to not let this go to your head. I’ve found that it is generally best to listen about 80% of the time and talk at most 20% of the time. Good engineering schools teach that “I don’t have enough information for an accurate answer at this moment, but I will look into the issue before replying” is a completely valid response, and often much more useful than an immediate off-the-cuff answer that is incomplete or misleading.
Also, there’s a pretty good chance that the other party will either forget about the matter or will solve it themselves before you get around to researching it, thus making it Not Your Problem Anymore ™.
Stupidity has no stronger foundation nor more worthy mentor than ideology!
Hi John,
Nice one!
Being able to think critically and constantly assess external information to inform your own decision making is really what makes a good sailor, and being able to adjust course when required is a big part of it. The flip side of that is sometimes you have to commit to a decision fully, even if you later realise it wasn’t the right one, because changing your mind once you start simply isn’t an option – like bar crossings for example.
One of he more profound recollections of my engineering education was a professor saying, “only mother nature knows.”