The Importance of Error Link

From Ta-nehisi Coates regarding Andrew Sullivan’s retirement from blogging:

Andrew taught me that you do not have to pretend to be smarter than you are. And when you have made the error of pretending to be smarter, or when you simply have been wrong, you can say so and you can say it straight—without self-apology, without self-justifying garnish, without “if I have offended.” And there is a large body of deeply curious readers who accept this, who want this, who do not so much expect you to be right, as they expect you to be honest.

I never read Andrew Sullivan’s work unless an interesting link floated by. But I love this thought by Coates. I don’t think people avoid admitting fault only because of pride. There’s also a seething roil of people waiting to find the fault so they may revel in human frailty. Which means it takes even more guts, as a popular writer, to admit faults and mistakes. And not just the faults and mistakes that people will frantically click and gorge on, but the tiny, boring little cracks that run through everyone’s skin.