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Some words just aren't said in polite company: I count among them the "F" -word No, not that one; the one that I translated to "partial success" in the title of this column. Failure. It's hard enough to admit being wrong at least for some people. Admitting failure is much tougher.
We avoid discussing failure, both organizationally and personally. That's a shame, as we can sometimes learn more from objectively examined projects that fail than we can from projects that succeed.
Portions of this column originated in three 2007 Cites & Insights essays (http: //citesandinsights.info) - "On Being Wrong" in June 2007 (7:6), "Making it Work" in May 2007 (7:5), and another "Making it Work" in September 2007 (7:10). First, let's talk about being wrong. You could call being wrong (or admitting to being wrong) an admission of personal failure. You could also call it learning from life.
BEING WRONG
It's probably silly for me to ask if you've ever been wrong. Of course you have. So have I. We all have. The F-word might not be articulated. You've been misinformed. You've miscalculated. You've learned better. Whatever words you use, you've been wrong.
But beyond knowing you've been wrong, have you ever admitted being wrong?
There are several levels to admitting you're wrong:
* Admitting it to yourself
* Admitting it privately
* Admitting it publicly
* Admitting it when it matters - when you were wrong about something more important than the likelihood of rain or the 17th digit of pi
I'd like to think the answer is "Yes" on all counts for most of you. It is for me. But I suspect the answer for some people is "No," at least on the third and fourth counts.
I posted "Never being wrong" on Walt at Random on Nov. 16, 2005, lamenting John Dvorak's refusal to admit he was wrong in calling Creative Commons "eye-rolling dumb" and "dangerous." I said, "Well ... someone called him on it, explained how difficult it is to voluntarily reduce your copyrights (particularly without abandoning them altogether), and so on."
I then quoted Donna Wentworth's Oct. 28, 2005, Copyfight post (http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/ 2005/10/28/ dvorak_on_creative_commons_now_i_get_it .php), "So will Dvorak write another column admitting that he was wrong? Not so fast." Her...