Not right, only less wrong

I recently read Mark Manson’s ‘The subtle art of not giving a f*ck’ and was rather impressed by the author’s ‘say it as it is’ style of writing. The book was a refreshing slap and really helped me understand the importance of prioritizing and staying grounded.

There was a part in the book that discussed perfection and being right. Mark says that with every new finding, we are not perfectly right but only less wrong. Our initial assumptions fall flat to new facts. Then we develop a new conclusion. And then there are more new facts which lead to a revision in the previous conclusion. So on and so forth.

The learning here is that the state of perfection can be intimidating before we start a problem. However, there is no perfection, Only the journey towards perfection.

Mark says it better than I ever can (see below)-

Five hundred years ago cartographers believed California was an island. Doctors believed that slicing your arm open and bleeding everywhere could cure disease. Scientists believed fire was made out of something called phlogiston. Women believed rubbing dog urine on their face had anti-aging benefits. And astronomers believed the sun revolved around the earth.

Knowledge is an eternal iterative process. We don’t go from “wrong” to “right” once we discover the capital-T Truth. Rather, we go from partially wrong to slightly less wrong, to slightly less wrong than that, to even less wrong than that, and so on. We approach the capital-T truth, but never reach it.