"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

-- Oscar Wilde

A friend recently had a testy email exchange--I wouldn't exactly call it an argument--with an Obstreperous Correspondent. OC ended with what I'm guessing he thought was a mic drop: "I have never been wrong."

Part of me thinks that must be nice. But there's a bigger part of me that thinks it's sad.

If I were a football coach, I wouldn't want a quarterback who never threw an interception. That would indicate a certain timidity, a reluctance to embrace necessary risk. In my business, "never" being wrong would probably be more indicative of fence-straddling than insightfulness. Paul Greenberg made it a tradition to write an annual "Where I Went Wrong" column.

If I were of stronger character, I might do the same. But it would hurt too much. I can't look back on any piece I've ever written and not find some sort of mistake, whether it's an imperfectly chosen word or a fumbled detail. I should not have picked the Arkansas football team over Ole Miss; I should not have picked Tennessee to upset Ohio State. One of the reasons I don't gamble often is because you have to be right about 53 percent of the time to break even in a sports book.

To be fair to OC, he probably understands he was wrong when he claimed to have never been wrong. He probably regrets making the statement, especially in writing. But maybe not; I've met people who have a lot of trouble admitting they are proven wrong. Given that virtual factories are devoted to providing alternative........

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