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Obsession with being right?

Archive: 15 posts


I dunno if it's just me, but i think people are really too focused on being right or correct these days.

It seems people have this grasp of reality that they assume is real, and anyone who denies it is a threat to them.

People are way too serious about everything. It makes it hard to be yourself and form honest relationships with people when they are so focused on your flaws.

Is it the over inflation of the ego that causes this? Are we pursuing a hierarchy of intelligence through this? Do we enjoy seeing someone become pathetic in comparison to ourselves? (BTW I'm speaking very general )

I think only one thing is objectively right in the universe and it's that nothing is true...everything is permitted...

Assasins creed ftw!!
2011-04-27 06:57:00

Author:
comishguy67
Posts: 849


I wanna be right about some stuff (like common sense and learning how to breathe properly), but I know I'll never be right about everything (never can, never will). It just bugs me when people's lies are considered right (especially horrible rumors...) and that people believe then.

... I feel like I'm trying to describe a liberal right now.
2011-04-27 07:06:00

Author:
Outlaw-Jack
Posts: 5757


Ugh, I have met too many people that fit this description. I got in trouble by my grade 8 teacher because I was arguing that Transylvania is a real place, but no, according to her it's a fictional place Obviously that's a more blatant example.

I don't understand why certain people have the need to be right all the time. I've become increasingly intolerant of these people though, if they don't want to accept that they're sometimes wrong then I'll just let 'em think what they want, ignorance is bliss not only for them but myself as well
2011-04-27 07:22:00

Author:
SR20DETDOG
Posts: 2431


Ultimately we seek a meritocratic environment by our very nature, but at the same time we have a drive to be a dominant force among both our peers and our rivals, also ingrained in human nature. This combination of a desire for meritocracy and dominance is what causes people to believe they are right, all the time. Being right elevates them to a more dominant position in a meritocratic environment.

It also has a lot to do with the "humility threshold".

To quote darwin, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"- Basically, the less you know about something, the more likely you are to THINK you know more about it. This isnt universally true- Those with a large amount of knowledge may also be aware they are very skilled but this is less common.

In 1999 two men named Kruger and Dunning conducted a study where they gabe students tests on various subjects, then before revealing their results to them asked them to guess their final score, and then asked them to guess how well they had done in comparison to their peers. The results were as shows:
http://www.narrativedisorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/unskilledandunawarechart.jpg

As you can see, the lower someone scored, the better they THOUGHT they did. Also ironically, the only people to UNDERESTIMATE themselves were those who actually scored very high. Note however they also estimated their scores higher than flunkies, meaning they are more vaguely aware they have a higher skill level- But along with knowing they are very intelligent, they are also aware there are many things they do not know.

Thus, normally those that boast and act like they are the best are usually amateurs, and those who claim skill but admit they likely know very little are the real experts.
You can read a full article on the study here. (http://www.narrativedisorder.com/2010/06/21/in-defense-of-humility-or-confidence-is-no-measure-of-competence/)
2011-04-27 07:27:00

Author:
the Ion Pulsar
Posts: 172


In 1999 two men named Kruger and Dunning conducted a study... etc
here. (http://www.narrativedisorder.com/2010/06/21/in-defense-of-humility-or-confidence-is-no-measure-of-competence/)
Thanks or the link sounds like a pretty interesting study.

EDIT: From the link

The same questions come to mind when I read an terribly flawed piece of writing.*

*Note: Any discussion of ability brings with it the jinx that there will be numerous grammatical and spelling errors in the very piece discussing it.
I found it funny...
2011-04-27 07:32:00

Author:
SR20DETDOG
Posts: 2431


Nu-uh, yno we don't you're trolling, because that's not what I think, and if you're not thinking what I'm thinking, and/ or have a different opinion to mine, it means you're trollig and you're a super evil troll!
(Also making jokes and light hearted comments make you a troll btw.)

Ahem, and that, my friends, is what 90% of LBPC sounds like these days, any questions?
2011-04-27 10:05:00

Author:
Silverleon
Posts: 6707


There's a saying, "People go into university thinking they know everything, and they leave realising they know practically nothing" ;

Socrates summed it up better with "all I know is that I know nothing" ;

Someone who thinks they are "RIGHT", in completely unmovable terms, are simply displaying their ignorance at what is left to learn. The more you learn, the more you realise that there is so much more that you do not know.

"There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true." Winston Churchill


Einstien, Newton, Darwin etc - all advanced collective human understanding in their lifetime - only they were all totally wrong about their chosen subjects.
You can tell a lie and it can still be true, you can be totally wrong and still be half right - believe it or not

The best you can be is "fairly certain" based on the available information/evidence at the time - but the basis for your assumptions is almost certainly likely to change as better, more reliable, evidence/information becomes available.
2011-04-27 14:53:00

Author:
Macnme
Posts: 1970


Ugh, I have met a few and still must meet these people wandering around in my school. The worst ones are those who are quite intelligent, but think they are the cream of the cream and that the world revolves around them... Well, a few probably think like that from time to time, but here I am talking about people who do it all the time, and anything wrong that happens to them is automatically wrong in all matters. Grr!



Einstien, Newton, Darwin etc - all advanced collective human understanding in their lifetime - only they were all totally wrong about their chosen subjects.
You can tell a lie and it can still be true, you can be totally wrong and still be half right - believe it or not


Wah? Links please?
2011-04-27 16:36:00

Author:
moonwire
Posts: 1627


Bah, the moment I realize I'm wrong, I just learnt something new.2011-04-27 16:40:00

Author:
OmegaSlayer
Posts: 5112


There's no need for links, it is self evident;

For example;
Newton thought gravity was a force acting on all objects with mass and based all his calculations on this... this,however, isn't true - in fact it's completely wrong. His calculations only worked "up to a point".
The "Truth" (at least the truth as we see it at this moment in time - but that is likely to change) - is that gravity is not a force, but a consequence of a curvature in the fabric of space-time caused by objects with mass - the larger the mass, the bigger the curve it makes in space-time. Not, as Newton thought, that Mass attracts Mass.

We can still use newtons equations in everyday mathmatics ( F=ma) - and we still teach them in school (but not at university).
This is because it's a simple theory that is easy to understand and "makes sense" to a simple mind.
This simple lie prepares your mind for the "larger lie" that gravity is caused by a curvature of space-time (which is itself a lie - as they have no idea what gives things mass or how that interacts with space-time - and have been using a "place-holder" for the last 2 decades in the form of Dark Matter/Higgs Boson - which itself is proving to be totally wrong once tested).

So it can be a working model that improves our understanding (therefore is "True" [for a given value of "True"]) - but in actual "real" terms - is completely false.
2011-04-27 17:24:00

Author:
Macnme
Posts: 1970


@Macnme:
Oh, that, I already knew about mass curving space, at least the basic idea Though, if the concept you talk about is like that, then I won't be asking about what you meant by Darwin, you got me reading a lengthy article from creationists with so badly reasoned arguments I could jump out from a buildning, 24th floor. DX
2011-04-27 18:11:00

Author:
moonwire
Posts: 1627


@Macnme:
Oh, that, I already knew about mass curving space, at least the basic idea Though, if the concept you talk about is like that, then I won't be asking about what you meant by Darwin, you got me reading a lengthy article from creationists with so badly reasoned arguments I could jump out from a buildning, 24th floor. DX

Short version:
Darwin had no idea how 'inheritance' worked - it wasn't until we discovered DNA that this was revealed. Which is fundamental to understanding how evolution works.
Other ideas such as "survival of the fittest" were wrong (though Darwin didn't coin that phrase) - it's more like "Survival of the most adaptable";
ie; "Half right & totally wrong"

But you should also be wary of creationists - as they also suffer from the "I am Right!" syndrome.

The "Truth" (do I really need to qualify it with 'as we see it at this moment in time' each time?) is that we are still learning about everything - the origin of the universe - the origin of life - how the physical universe actually works etc.

While we may never reach an "Absolute Truth" (which all religions seem to have reached ages ago) - each time we realise that what we thought of as "true" turned out to be a "lie" - we have crossed off one more possible "Truth" - bringing us one step closer to that unobtainable "Absolute Truth".

Of course - I could be wrong!

"Dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants"
2011-04-27 18:25:00

Author:
Macnme
Posts: 1970


Is it the over inflation of the ego that causes this?
Yeah.


Are we pursuing a hierarchy of intelligence through this?
The more you know the more you know you don't know anything.


There's a saying, "People go into university thinking they know everything, and they leave realising they know practically nothing" ;
Another saying is they go in being idiots and come out idiots with an inflated ego, maybe hidden behind a mask of faux humility.
2011-04-28 15:19:00

Author:
Ayneh
Posts: 2454


When your teacher gets somthing wrong, they pretend they were right. Like, I got some homework to completa a page of our book, The whole class did it, but the teacher told us off for doing the wrong page, then she said "Oh, well you should of known that that wasnt what we were learning and done the next page!"2011-04-29 11:22:00

Author:
Squidge99
Posts: 203


When your teacher gets somthing wrong, they pretend they were right. Like, I got some homework to completa a page of our book, The whole class did it, but the teacher told us off for doing the wrong page, then she said "Oh, well you should of known that that wasnt what we were learning and done the next page!"
Oh man, we used to have a science teacher who did stuff like that along with silly things like spelling "vain" instead of "vein" on the board. Everyone in the lesson collectively gave up correcting them after a couple of months.
2011-04-29 20:18:00

Author:
Ayneh
Posts: 2454


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