As the title says, how often do you admit you're wrong? Is it different when it's a factual dispute versus something more subjective?

I make an effort to concede early if I'm in error. I think because my mother almost never admits fault. She'll fall back to "that's not what I meant" or similar deflections first, and that's really annoying.

The last big factual error I made was about the distance of walking, and that's where I learned about Taxicab Geometry ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry ).

I think some people believe admitting fault is a sign of weakness, but I find it's more of a power move. It takes strength to do it, and people can tell when you're sweating and desperate. Usually it leads to resolving the conflict faster and cheaper, too.

(I expect some people will feel the urge to reply they're never wrong. I'll file that under never admits fault.)

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[–] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I admit I'm wrong when I'm wrong. If I'm factually wrong, I say I stand corrected. If I do something bad, I apologize. I fear it looks like I'm bragging right now but it shouldn't be something to brag about, it should be what everyone does. It's what mature people do.

People who can't admit they're wrong completely close themselves off to learning or growing. They think they're protecting themselves from shame by making excuses that they meant something else or it's someone else's fault they did a bad thing, but oftentimes they suffer even worse consequences by behaving that way

On the flipside, though, the other extreme is also bad. You shouldn't concede that you're wrong when you're not wrong

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