In software engineering, being wrong isn’t a failure; being wrong is an early signal. Every bug, failed deploy, or incorrect assumption is feedback that a system is doing exactly what it was told, not what was intended. That gap between intent and reality is where learning happens.
Engineers People who are comfortable admitting “I was wrong” tend to collaborate better. They invite feedback, adapt faster, and make better long-term decisions. In my experience, teams built on psychological safety consistently outperform those driven by blame.
Correctness is an outcome of iteration. The goal isn’t to never be wrong, but to be wrong in ways that move things forward. In software engineering, progress is often just a series of well-crafted mistakes.
Last week, on 3 separate occasions, amazing engineers were didn’t share their opinions because they were afraid of being wrong. Their ideas were expressed to me after the meetings. Regardless of their correctness, all 3 ideas would propelled us further in the meetings.