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Yes, You are all Wrong

What I've Been Thinking About Lately #13

Humans discount the accomplishments of their past and overrate how they will feel with accomplishments of the future.


When I see this meme, I think of Nicolaus Copernicus. There are so many things we don't know, waiting to be discovered. These undiscovered truths are omnipresent, yet hidden, silently waiting to be unveiled and layered over with incorrect beliefs assumed by the masses. In the early 1500s, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the earth was not the center of the universe, and in fact, that the earth revolves around the sun. People were outraged, astronomers looked down on him, and his books were even banned by the Vatican because the ideas were contrary to scripture. My 3 takeaways:

  • There are truths that we observe everyday that we are completely unaware of and are actively wrong about, probably best to have strong opinions, loosely held unless you can be absolutely sure about something

  • Truth has ultimate staying power because it will always be true, regardless of how people feel about it

  • Copernicus is a badass because he didn't let the social psychology of common sentiment influence his opinion. Assuming no one else believed this before him, his opinion was outnumbered 500,000,000* to 1


*Population of the world in 1500 AD

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