Cultivating Bias Toward More Right

There are at least two ways to be less wrong. You can decrease risk of being wrong, which also decreases opportunity for being right. Or you can increase opportunity for being right, which also increases risk of being wrong. Neither is necessarily proportionate. The surest way to be less wrong is to be less – to live less, even to exist less. That which doesn’t exist is never wrong. If we imagine that to be wrong, such is so only to the extent that our imagination imbues existence. Nihilism is less wrong. To remain true to life, one cannot consistently prioritize being less wrong above being more right. The former is a practical dead end – figuratively, literally, even informatically. The latter entails perpetual risk. And perpetual risk entails perpetual cost. Life demands it. Work toward being less wrong can be and often is helpful. However, if desire to be less wrong supersedes desire to be more right, if work toward being less wrong supersedes work toward being more right, on the whole, we are servants of death. The aspiration to be less wrong is not better than the aspiration to overcome bias. Some biases, such as love, can be worth cultivating rather than overcoming. Likewise, the risk of being more wrong can be worth the opportunity of being more right. Will she love you back? Until you take a risk, you won’t know. That’s how life works. That’s how wisdom works. So that’s what true philosophers do. We take risks, only sometimes calculated, because we love her.

There are at least two ways to be less wrong. You can decrease risk of being wrong, which also decreases opportunity for being right. Or you can increase opportunity for being right, which also increases risk of being wrong. Neither is necessarily proportionate.

The surest way to be less wrong is to be less – to live less, even to exist less. That which doesn’t exist is never wrong. If we imagine that to be wrong, such is so only to the extent that our imagination imbues existence. Nihilism is less wrong.

To remain true to life, one cannot consistently prioritize being less wrong above being more right. The former is a practical dead end – figuratively, literally, even informatically. The latter entails perpetual risk. And perpetual risk entails perpetual cost. Life demands it.

Work toward being less wrong can be and often is helpful. However, if desire to be less wrong supersedes desire to be more right, if work toward being less wrong supersedes work toward being more right, on the whole, we are servants of death.

The aspiration to be less wrong is not better than the aspiration to overcome bias. Some biases, such as love, can be worth cultivating rather than overcoming. Likewise, the risk of being more wrong can be worth the opportunity of being more right.

Will she love you back? Until you take a risk, you won’t know. That’s how life works. That’s how wisdom works. So that’s what true philosophers do. We take risks, only sometimes calculated, because we love her.