Girl Interrupting: It is damn hard to admit you are wrong

[liveonearth]

It is damn hard to admit you are wrong
http://sylviamclain.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/it-is-damn-hard-to-admit-you-are-wrong/

Girl Interrupting is Sylvia's science blog. In this post she ruminates on the human tendency to stick to the explanation that is known, and on how this behavior affects us, especially within the pursuit of science.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

In engineering in the US I have found this to be much more common than in the UK. Our design reviews in the UK were cut-throat and yet impersonal. So we defended our design but if it was defeated that wasn't a judgment against the engineer. We took the view that it's much better to find out at the start than to wait until the thing is almost complete and then find it won't work. In the places I have worked here they really don't want to know when they are wrong.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

So you're saying its worse in the US. I guess I am not surprised. We are the coddled ones.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I worked in the defense industry in the UK, half my career as a principal consultant and the other half at the company that managed the Atomic Weapons Establishment and ran most nuclear weapon programs. So maybe my experience wasn't typical. But the companies I have worked for here are not really interested in a real quality process, just in passing the tests. Not all companies here are the same, our next door neighbors are a CMM level 5 defense contractor. I expect they do a very good job.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

This is why it's so difficult to reach agreement in mediation. People find a position and they want to STAY there.