My nephew James sent me...

...a link to this video in response to a blog post I wrote yesterday in answer to the question, "How do we know what we think we know?"

And my first reaction was, Seventeen minutes! I don't have seventeen minutes.

But then I thought, Sure I do; I'm going to live to be a hundred. So I watched it and thought, I need to watch that again.

Now in case you don't have seventeen minutes to spare, I'll summarize it for you: What if you're wrong? About anything. Because maybe you are. But ... that's okay.

When you're wrong, according to Kathryn Schulz, you don't even know you're wrong because being wrong feels like you're right.

But, she continues, "trusting too much in the feeling of being on the correct side of anything can be very dangerous."

And that message is humbling for me because this whole blog has been about voicing my opinions. It's been a great vehicle for that; a catharsis. And I'm opinionated (in case you haven't noticed). But I maintain that it's genetic. In fact, as I've mentioned before (only half-kiddingly), my family of origin's motto could very well have been "Seldom right, but never in doubt."

Ms. Schulz asks a good question, "When you feel you're right, how do you explain all those people that disagree with you?"

In three steps:

1. We assume they're ignorant; or...
2. They're idiots; or worse...
3. They're evil.

Which reminds me of this bit by George Carlin:

But maybe we're wrong. Or at least we should be thinking like that. Because, unlike God, we don't really know what's going on out there. And, unlike all of the other animals, we are obsessed with trying to figure it out.

Like me.

Five years ago, before the financial crisis, I was a Libertarian. Right now, I guess you could call me a liberal Democrat (although I'd still call myself a centrist). Who will I be in five more years (if I'm still alive)?

But the question we should never stop asking ourselves, according to Ms. Schulz, is "Wow, I don't know ... what if I'm wrong?"