The simple rule is that you should allow yourself to think and act “badly,” “wrongly,” and “poorly,” particularly if lowering the bar gives you permission to think and act more fluently and reliably than you otherwise might. There’s nothing wrong with being wrong if wrongness reliably predicts the arrival of rightness.

Once you can embrace the educational value that comes with being wrong, you will find it easier to think, “But I might be wrong this time,” in any given situation. There will be occasions in which you want to dial down your ego to avoid looking like a jerk. For example, sometimes you might need to pretend in front of others that you have some