Is it my fault if you can't handle the truth? (2019)

Bill Gates was known to be blunt with his feedback. He still is. But I can see his justification for it. He is knowledgeable and MSFT is a huge company, so directness is needed.

This reminds me of:

“People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty.”

Richard J. Needham

Two things -

1. science is the search for being right. It has brought us untold riches and wealth (and weapons). But getting humans to accept the provable facts is really really hard and usually progress is made a funeral at a time.

2. Most people who think they are right are not using scientific rigour but their own instincts and are usually full of hot air - see any middle manager for examples

So yes, you are right - ring right is the most important thing. We should bend ourselves to the correct truth.

however

It's almost impossible that the thing you are arguing about today actually has a right answer that you can prove to even a neutral outsiders standards.

> It reminds me of the bumper stickers on trucks saying that vehicles must stay back at least 200 feet because the driver is not responsible for damage done to other vehicles by falling rocks. It's nonsense of course.

No, it isn't nonsense. Neither are the signs at a mechanic's shop telling you they're not responsible for lost or damaged items. What all these signs have in common is that they signify dangerous work.

A dump truck can't be unloaded without everything else out of the way, a car on a lift should be treated with caution, and of course a rational statement of fact cannot be sugarcoated or censored without affecting its truthfulness.

Particularly with software, it can absolutely be dangerous to not be as clear as possible what is occurring. Computers are machinery too and humans should respect that.

>> science is the search for being right. It has brought us untold riches and wealth

IMHO science is about understanding well enough to make useful predictions.