Regrets

I’ve written a great many things about a great many topics. Every so often, someone asks whether I regret any of it. Recently, one person didn’t so much ask as demand—not merely that I acknowledge that I was wrong but also append an update to an article written some time ago.

I explained, politely, that publishing doesn’t work like that. Once something is out in the world, I don’t get to push through updates, months or years later on someone else platform. Sometimes, I wish I could. Then, I’d never be wrong.

But beyond logistics, there’s something more fundamental here. I have to take ownership of what I’ve thought and written. I held the views I did based on the information I had at the time, filtered through the person I was at the time. All I can do—then and now—is try to be as informed as possible.

Of course, being informed is not a vaccine against error. People change their views not only because new information emerges, but because they themselves evolve. Personal experience, in p…