“Prove It”: Your Assumptions

Think about what you get by finding out you’re correct. It’s the exact same thing you get by assuming you’re right. Aside from a moment of confirmation, you get nothing. Confirmation can signal correct logic, but it doesn’t bring development or growth. Plus, it doesn’t have staying power because 10,000 bits of confirming evidence can be disproved with one bit of disconfirming evidence. 

One way to think about this is in the specific sense. For example, take a look at the following “fact”:

The boiling point for water is 100 degrees celsius. 

This seems simple enough. Plus, I took basic high school science class. It’s specifically true, right? The trouble is, it’s true except when it’s not. You see, water boils at exactly 100 degrees celsius unless the sodium level of the water changes or the attitude changes. In the specific sense, seeking disconfirming information and removing assumptions could save you a couple minutes of heartache while tending to your stovetop in your Denver-based AirBnb. Or, we can think about this point in the general sense. 

Generally speaking, a worldview that isn’t curious about disconfirming information and challenging assumptions offers little growth opportunity and characteristically perpetuates fragile assumptions that are set up for failure.

If you’re interested in being right more than you’re interested in being wrong, you’re leaving growth on the table. Furthermore, finding confirming evidence for your assumptions only confirms they haven’t yet been proven wrong. The science community has known what we ought to have learned long ago. We can only disprove a hypothesis. In that way, your assumptions are true so far.