Have the courage to be wrong

Over the weekend, CK reminded us that great minds don't always think alike. She cited the example of Christopher Columbus, who, in her words "thought 'round world' when others were 110% certain that it was square."

This is a widely reported myth repeated at a time when the truth, I think, provides a stronger argument for CK's central point.

The Great Columbus Hoax

In our more romantic versions of Columbus' life, we're told that Columbus squared off against charges of blasphemy from Kings and Lords to prove that the earth was round. He courageously convinced an open minded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (of Spanish Inquisition fame) to fund his journey of discovery so he could prove to all the world that they were a bunch of backward-thinking nimrods.

It's all a big lie.

Christopher Columbus didn't find the "new world" because he believed the world was round and others thought it flat. By 1492, most intellectuals of the world pretty much accepted the world was round. However, their arithmetic, relying on a method used in ancient Egypt by Eratosthenes, determined that the earth's circumference was about 4,000 miles longer than the Ptolemaic methods Columbus used estimated.

(Ptolemy [AD 83- c. 168] was a very gifted cartographer and philosopher from whom we derive much of our mapping vernacular, but his estimates of the earth's circumference were way off).

It's true that others initially resisted Columbus' efforts find a path to the Indies through a westward sea route. But it wasn't because they thought they'd fall off the globe, as we are taught in schools, but because they thought the distance was too long for the ships (and crews) of their day to travel.

In the end, history proved his critics right, but it awarded to Columbus the honorary posthumous victory.

Genius Principle #1: The Profit Motive

In defense of those critical of Columbus' voyage, they simply didn't realize there were any large land masses between Europe and the Indies. If they had, perhaps they'd be more motivated to explore them. However, that wasn't anyone's motive at the time.

All they wanted to do was to make money, and at the time Indian trade was potentially pretty lucrative.

But there was a  problem.

Traveling over land was slow and filled with hardships, and the sea route was the domain of pirates.

Genius Principle #2: Try Something Different

Everyone was tired of paying ransom to the pirates for the privilege to keep their own property. So rather than acquiesce to the time-honored practice of bribery, Columbus dared to champion a different solution:

Don't pay them. Go around them.

And though it would be another couple of decades before anyone successfully circumnavigated the globe, it was partially because of the discovery arising out of Columbus' voyage that someone dared make the trip at that time.

(I chose not to attribute the ownership of that discovery to Columbus, since he went to his grave believing he landed at the Indies, not an entirely new heretofore unrecognized land mass).

History may have proved his critics right, but Columbus was proved bold. And sometimes that's enough. - Cam Beck

Comments

[Gannon Beck]

"History may have proved his critics right, but Columbus was proved bold. And sometimes that's enough."

or from Full Metal Jacket for those of us in the low-brow category:

"Private Joker, he's silly and he's ignorant, but he's got guts and guts is enough."

[Cam Beck]

I may be channeling R. Lee Ermy... The title of this post was originally "Have the guts to be wrong."

[Gannon Beck]

Nonetheless, it's a good point. Action without perfect information takes courage. Because perfect information is nearly impossible in most situations, progress depends on the boldness you suggest.