Rightness is a prison - by Cate Hall - Useful Fictions

I recently did a “50 things I know” post, and asked which ones people wanted to hear more about. This was number 22 on that list. We just wrapped up our first quarterly reviews for Astera’s spring residency cohort, and one of my favorite things to come out of it was this statement by resident Edwin Kite: “Based on past completed projects of comparable ambition, it is near certain that our initial scientific assumptions are wrong.” This is the reality of science. It’s also the reality of life more generally. It’s actually really, really hard to be right about all but the most basic things. Sometimes we start with the right facts and assumptions, but draw the wrong conclusion. Sometimes we stumble across a correct conclusion, but for all the wrong reasons. More often we’re inept carpenters, trying to build with the wrong tools, perched atop a crumbling scaffold. It’s a wonder we’re able to build anything at all that lasts. I, for one, am wrong constantly. I’ve been wrong about big things

I recently did a “50 things I know” post, and asked which ones people wanted to hear more about. This was number 22 on that list. We just wrapped up our first quarterly reviews for Astera’s spring residency cohort, and one of my favorite things to come out of it was this statement by resident Edwin Kite: “Based on past completed projects of comparable ambition, it is near certain that our initial scientific assumptions are wrong.” This is the reality of science. It’s also the reality of life more generally. It’s actually really, really hard to be right about all but the most basic things. Some