To be positive is to be mistaken at the top of one’s voice.

Certainty has a volume, and the two tend to rise together. The less room you leave for being wrong, the louder and flatter your voice gets, because confidence is doing the work that evidence should be doing. Real knowledge usually sounds more careful than that. It comes with conditions attached, with a sense of where it might break.

Listen for your own loudest opinions this week and check what is underneath them. Ask when you last changed your mind about anything you argue for often. Try saying the honest version out loud: here is what I think, and here is the part I am not sure of.