Being Wrong

It turns out being wrong is a good thing. I was recently challenged to write an essay on a subject that has no answer. In this light there is a broad spectrum of answers that would pass the test with varying degrees of wrongness. While pondering the thought of actually writing said essay, I remembered a relationship I had come up with that relates degree of wrongness to interest in conversation. This of course means it's time for a diagram. Please refer to figure 1.0.



Figure 1.0 The relationship between correctness of statement and willingness of others to engage you



This figure shows that closer to the origin, where the degree of wrongness is highest (x axis is how correct you are), the willingness for others to engage you in conversation is highest. In the very extreme case of being the farthest away from being correct, meaning closest to the origin, the willingness for others to engage is zero. This is because at such an extreme viewpoint people will probably be either:

a) afraid of you
b) convinced you're not capable of having a conversation because your idea is so bad

It is important to note that the maximum willingness to engage occurs very near to the most wrong you could ever be. This is because it is easy for people to identify that you are wrong, and be willing to 'set you straight' and be sure to correct you.

On the most correct end of the spectrum the willingness for people to engage asymptotically approaches zero. The asymptotic approach is to account for those people on the opposite end of the spectrum, who even though you are 100% correct, are crazy enough to argue. These are the people that most people are either:

a) afraid of
b) convinced aren't capable of having a conversation

The steady decline occurs because as your statement becomes more and more correct the possibility for anyone to add decreases. See figure 2.0.

Figure 2.0 The relationship between completeness of statement and room left to contribute



The take home message here is that if you would love to kill a conversation, be right. By all means make the most complete statement possible covering every angle and giving all sides of the argument a fair shake. Nobody, except the creepy guy in the corner, will have anything to say to that. You will have just won the contest of being right, but lost at being a guy people can talk to. Alternatively you could say something that is borderline outrageous. If you hit it just right, you will be rewarded with maximum engagement by normal people.