The Wrong Kind of Right

I'm watching her face tighten as we scroll through the campaign data. The conference room feels smaller with each passing minute.

We've found the issue — basic data reading mistakes, budget allocations that worked against her goals. A fixable puzzle, really.

But she's not looking for resolution.

Each insight is met with a defensive "How can this be?" or "That’s just your hypothesis" Her arms are crossed now, eyes focused on some distant point beyond the screen.

And in hindsight, I see ourselves in her resistance.

How many times have we nodded along in meetings while internally constructing elaborate defenses? How often have we chosen to protect our expertise rather than expand it?

The real optimization problem isn't just in her campaign settings — it's in our shared human circuitry. That instinctive flinch when our work is questioned. The way we all sometimes choose being right over getting better.

It's easier to see these patterns in others. Harder to catch our own sophisticated versions of the same dance — the subtle deflections, the elegant justifications, the professional-sounding rationales that keep us comfortable but stuck.

I wonder what becomes possible when we recognize this defensive reflex not as a personal flaw, but as a shared human pattern... When we see our resistance not as something to overcome, but as a signal that something important — perhaps our sense of competence or belonging — needs to be heard first...I don’t know.