Be Wrong started out as a simple thought-experiment: How much more fun could writing be, if I didn't have to care about being right? Or even vaguely correct.

The answer, fortunately enough, was "a lot". Throwing ideas onto a page to see what sticks was far more generative than I expected.

The regular method of research; combing through archives, looking up a million counterarguments, and finding a dozen people who came to the exact same conclusion as me; was horribly discouraging. Why write at all?

Becuase I had things to say, opinions to air, beliefs to state. But who was I to make them public? Where was my credibility? My promise of unbiased truth-telling? I had no unquestionable domain expertise, no confident advice or clear-cut research to offer.


As someone who knows almost nothing about anything, I have some thoughts on the subject. -Sirsfurther


But some of my favourite writing is of the kind that isn’t afraid to be mistaken. From Shasha’s Dubious Life Strategies to Secrotorum Sanctorium’s ideas about the nerd stereotype. Even Scott’s writing over at Slate Star Codex is often humorously speculative.

Everything I can think of writing about would have to come with a gigantic "The author is not trustworthy and his ideas even less so" warning sign. And so; in a gesture of brash, dramatic self-acceptance; I chose to make that the main theme.

This newsletter has one main purpose: try to be wrong in as many fun ways as possible.

There is a place for carefully-considered rational analysis, but it is not on this blog. There’s no alpha in stating the obviously right, instead I prefer to strive towards what I consider the highest praise for a piece of non-fiction: Probably wrong — but worth reading anyway. Preposterous — but worth taking seriously.

However, I cannot promise to be wrong all the time (you know what they say about broken clocks), but I plan to do my best. If you ever catch me being too sensible, don’t hesitate to yell at me in the comments and I’ll make an extra effort to be wrong in the future.

If this sounds like your jam, go ahead and subscribe.

If it doesn’t, do so anyway. I need all the haters I can get. (Come heckle me over on @joodaloop if you’re on Twitter)

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If you're so smart, why aren't you mistaken?

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reading (indiscriminately) + writing (chaotically)