Real Talk: You’re Wrong About Everything

And So Am I

I used to think I had it all figured out. I used to think that my opinions were sharp enough to cut through bullshit, that my beliefs were solid as bedrock. But then life did what life does: it took a sledgehammer to my certainty and left me standing in the rubble, wondering how I got here. It turns out I was wrong. About a lot of things. And if you’re reading this thinking, ‘Yeah, people are wrong all the time,’ congratulations, you’ve just proven my point, because you’re wrong too.

We are all wrong about something, all the time. The trick is figuring out where.

There’s an old Spanish saying: El que mucho abarca, poco aprieta: he who grasps too much, holds little. That was me. I thought I knew enough about life to have a firm grip on it. I thought my opinions were built on rock, not sand. But life has a funny way of reminding you that the moment you think you know something for sure, you’ve just outstripped your own intelligence.

It reminds me of when I first started writing online. I thought I was ready to mint money with my words, that readers would flock to my bold ideas, throwing cash at me for my raw, unfiltered brilliance. Idiot. I was so confident, so certain, so wrong. My early work was clunky, self-indulgent, and let’s be honest, about as enjoyable as sandpaper on bare skin. I was preaching ideas I barely understood myself, convinced they were profound. But here’s the punchline: I didn’t need to be right. I needed to keep writing, keep failing, and keep adjusting.

Because the moment you admit you’re wrong, you finally start to get things right.

Think back ten years. You probably believed many things that you now find ridiculous. Maybe you thought love was supposed to be effortless. Maybe you thought success was just a matter of working hard. Maybe you believed that pineapple on pizza was a crime against humanity (okay, maybe that one is true). The point is, you changed. And guess what? Ten years from now, you’re going to look back at your current self and cringe just as hard.

That’s why I have a hard time trusting people who never admit they were wrong. If you’ve gone through life without ever changing your mind, without ever experiencing a shift in perspective, that doesn’t mean you’ve been right all along; it means you’ve been standing still.

Being right feels amazing. It’s a high, a dopamine hit straight to the brain. But it’s also a drug with nasty side effects: arrogance, close-mindedness, and an allergic reaction to new ideas.

I remember getting into an argument with a friend about self-awareness. He claimed that most people don’t change because they don’t want to. I argued that most people can’t change because they don’t see themselves clearly. The debate got heated, and neither of us budged.

Years later, I wrote an article titled “Why Self-Awareness Is the Real Plot Twist You Need.” And while rereading it, something hit me: I had spent so much time trying to win that debate, I had never considered the possibility that we were both wrong. Most people don’t change because they don’t want to. But they also don’t change because they don’t see themselves clearly. It’s not one or the other. It’s both.

The lesson? Sometimes the truth isn’t hiding behind one door; it’s standing outside, watching you argue, shaking its head.

So, what’s the solution? How do we navigate life knowing we’re always carrying some degree of ignorance? We embrace it. Instead of clinging to our beliefs like a life raft in stormy waters, we hold them loosely, willing to let go when the tide changes. Instead of assuming we’ve got the world figured out, we assume we don’t, and that assumption alone makes us a little less wrong.

It’s like the protagonist in my short story Negative Reaction. The guy is convinced he sees the world as it is, convinced that everyone else is blind. But by the end, it’s clear. He’s the one who never adjusted his focus. He never questioned himself. He never considered that the biggest flaw in his perspective was himself.

Sound familiar?

If you leave this article with anything, let it be this: The more certain you are, the more likely you’re full of shit. So, go ahead. Challenge your beliefs. Question your assumptions. Accept that, in ten years, you’ll probably look back at your current self and laugh at how misguided you were. And that’s okay. Because if you’re willing to be wrong today, you’re already on the path to being less wrong tomorrow.