Are you SURE you KNOW the answer

Do you sometimes get wrapped up in arguments? You know you're right. Yet the other person seems to think they are right too. Before Google, the only way to resolve a dispute was to find a book, a magazine or someone else to settle the disagreement.

Today, Google and smart phone technology places most of the answers directly in our pockets.

But sometimes the Internet can't give us the answer. It's an opinion, a statement or a personal event not captured on the feeds of Facebook.

At my last corporate job, before smart phones, there was a colleague who used a simple tactic to resolve disputes immediately. He would bet a toonie ($2) every time there was a disagreement. He would raise the stakes from a simple discussion to putting an insignificant two dollars on the table. The two bucks meant nothing monetarily. But it got us back to work, ending the dispute, focusing on our other tasks at hand.

Put your money where your mouth is! The two dollars proved that disagreements have everything to do with the need to be right and nothing to do with money. 

Disagreements are about pride. We don't like to admit to being wrong, even when we are.

The ego wants to hold onto the perceived facts. The ego wants to be built up, to be strong to protect us.

As I get older, the desire to be right is fading like the colour of a 1986 Honda Civic. 

The way a person perceives the world and its facts is a filter. It's an illusion. It's an interpretation of a reality.

What is reality? It's a consensus of enough people to see something the same way.

The next time, you're certain of something, is it more important to be right or to wonder how the other person has come to their conclusion.

What we think we know is much greater than we actually know.

Let's use an example.

How does a dog drink water?

We know a dog laps water with the tongue, pulling the water from the tip and throwing it into the mouth.

But does the tongue curve forward or backward?

I have observed dogs drinking water my whole life and didn't know the tongue curves backward. At least Pier isn't around, he would have made an easy $2 off me.