Admit When You’re Wrong Already

Throughout most of my career I’ve held a second job as an adjunct instructor at a local University.  After my salary at my main job got to a certain point, I often wondered why I was doing this.  I didn’t need the money, I was doing fine without it.

But I did need the teaching outlet.  I wrote about how I overcame a horrible stutter though my childhood and young adulthood by taking a teaching position at my main job.  I did that job for about 4 years, but eventually moved to another position.

I soon found, however, that I missed teaching.  A lot.  After all, it helped me conquer a major challenge in my life and I knew I couldn’t just abandon it that quick.

So I eventually landed an adjunct position at a large local university that didn’t require too much of a time commitment.  To be honest, it’s a really sweet gig.  I only teach one or two classes a year and once I wrote the original curriculum, the teaching part is easy.

 

The Sweet Spot

For the most part, my classes go very smoothly and the students are great.  I usually don’t have too many undergrads in my classes since I teach in what the University calls the “Professional Education” part of their school. 

My class is part of a technical certificate program, so my students are often mid or even late career professionals looking to augment their skills or even change careers.

With that comes maturity.  When the average student is in their 30’s or 40’s, they tend to not be hung over and sleep through class.  It makes the job even easier. 

Great hours, a subject I love, very good pay, and engaged students.   The perfect second job.  

 

Credibility

One of the things about teaching, and it’s especially true when teaching technical curriculum to mid-career professionals, is that you have to establish and keep your credibility.

Many would say that credibility is the #1 thing that you must have as a teacher to be effective, and I would tend to agree. 

The last thing you need is someone to do a quick Google search after you just made an important declarative or factual statement and say “Uh, this says you’re wrong….”

You can lose credibility instantly.  Bottom line, you have to have mastery of your subject and material, and when you aren’t sure of the answer to a question, you say exactly that. 

You can’t make stuff up, guess, or assume things.  Once you’re found to be wrong, poof – again, there goes your credibility and attention of the class right along with it.

One of the subjects I teach is the Global Positioning System, or GPS as you probably know it.  I do a lesson on the whole system, from soup to nuts.

When you ask your phone to navigate you to the local park, it magically gets you there using GPS.

 

Setting The Stage

Without boring you to tears and losing you as a reader for good, I’ll try to get through this part quickly.  But I need to lay some nerd stuff out to make the point.  Please don’t cut your wrist with a rusty razor.

The GPS constellation went fully operational in 1995, and for the fist 5 years the government purposely degraded the signal for national security reasons. 

This policy was called “Selective Availability”, and Bill Clinton signed an order ending the practice in May 2000. 

In short, with Selective Availability the accuracy of your GPS was only about 300 feet, but when it’s turned off you have the accuracy you’re used to now, which can be as good as 10-15 feet. 

Your phone wouldn’t be able to navigate you to the store easily with an accuracy of 300 feet. 

Phew, done the nerd stuff. 

So after I stated to the class that President Clinton signed an order to end Selective Availability in May 2000, one of my students called out – didn’t even raise his hand – and said “that wasn’t Selective Availability”. 

I stopped, and calmly reaffirmed to him that it was.  He again insisted that it wasn’t.  I asked him if he knew the policy by another name, and he just said “no, but it’s not Selective Availability”.

The rest of the class started getting kind of tense as they saw that the student and I were in clear disagreement.  And remember that teaching to these established professionals can be difficult, they know stuff!  This guy if I remember worked at Raytheon or one of the big defense contractors.  In most classes my students teach me things, but always something new and tangentially related to the material. 

Being challenged about a clear fact in my curriculum, that’s a whole different ballgame. 

So I told him “we’ll chat at the break”, and continued with the lecture.  I wasn’t going to interrupt the flow of the presentation by Googling it and showing him, but I could see some other students doing just that. 

After lecture as the class dispersed I showed him the GPS website itself, the FAA’s website, and after he was still defiant I pulled up President Clinton’s own words right off the White House archive site. 

At that point, he just robotically kept saying, “yeah, I see that, but that’s not what Selective Availability is”.  By now it was becoming Twilight Zone-ish. 

I didn’t know this guy, I thought for a second that maybe something was wrong with him.  I left it by saying something like “Look, if you’re going to challenge me in front of my class at least have your facts straight.  I’m not going to lose my credibility with the rest of the students over false statements from you.” 

We left it at that, and when the rest of the students made their way back in you could tell they knew that my facts were correct. 

What was his issue? 

Well, I could see it in his eyes, I challenged him back and when blatantly caught being wrong he just refused to back down.  He had no defense, no facts, he was just backed in a “corner of stubbornness” and refused to admit he was wrong. 

This behavior will assuredly not get you far in life.

 

I Used To Be A Know It All

There was a time in my 20’s I’m ashamed to admit when I was a know it all.  I didn’t behave as bizarrely as my student when faced with clear facts that showed I was wrong, but I definitely leaned toward the argumentative side of things. 

Maybe it was some of my adventures in stock picking that started to set me straight, or perhaps it was my Mother who still at 89 has a much sharper memory than I do.  But thankfully over time I’ve distanced myself from that 20-something punk. 

I don’t think I would have achieved financial in dependence as early as I did had I not changed.  I would probably have kept picking stocks, thinking I knew more than others or was just smarter. 

At my job I would have probably kept barreling forward at 150mph, knowing that my ideas were the best.  Instead I “learned to learn” from others.  I learned that diversity of opinion is one of the best catalysts to new ideas.

 

It’s Okay To Be Wrong

The Happy Philosopher, as he tends to do, did a great post on being wrong recently.  Ironically, he’s right.

The hard part is getting to the moment when you realize you’re wrong and more importantly, take action to change course. 

Maybe you were wrong in thinking you’d like to be a software engineer.  You know it deep inside, but keep plodding on.  If so, admit it to yourself and move on.  You got it wrong. 

Perhaps you retired early and thought it was going to make you happier and solve all of your problems.  Is that working out?  If not, you might need a job 🙂

Don’t get stuck in the “stubborn corner” like I did with my Cisco stock. 

As someone who thought he was always right, I can attest that admitting when you’re wrong builds humility, and puts a healthy check on hubris. 

I’m FAR from perfect in this practice and realize it’s likely something I’ll be refining for the rest of my life.  But I enjoy practicing.

But I know I was right about Selective Availability. 

Your turn – were you ever a know it all like I was?  Do you have an easy time admitting when you’re wrong?