Right!

Back in the 1900's when I went to a college with training wheels on it, I was taking my final exam in a computer class.  The class was about databases.  It's where I learned the word "concatenate", which is a tremendously fun word.  Let's all say it!  conCATenate   FUN!

I understood that class.  It wasn't that hard but navigating your way around a database requires its own sort of choreography that can trip you up so it was really just about learning some of that.

At this final exam, the instructor asked us to pull a list of names from Group A and Group B that met a similar criteria.  It was one of a series of queries (and I think I am going to trademark "Series of Queries" and somehow use it to profit from the gay community) we had to do for this final exam.  These queries were set up at a variety of workstations around the classroom and we could do them in any order we wanted.  I noticed everyone in the class breezed through this particular question.  When I got to it I hit a brick wall.  With a couple more queries to go, I spent a good chunk of my time trying to figure out how to do this one.

Here's where I make the long story shorter.  Turns out the question was not valid.  Data from Group A and Group B just does not intersect.  After about 15 valuable minutes of self-doubt, wondering if I was sick on the ONE day we discussed how to do this, I boldly (but quietly) went to the instructor and said "This can't be done" fully expecting a disappointed look and perhaps a "I can't help you" but the instructor stared at the question in silence for a good ten count and just said "Leave it blank."

Okay.  So everyone else in the class answered it wrong.  I got it right.  What, do you suppose, are the chances everyone else will have their scores reduced?  Hold on - let me run a quick query on that.  Oh - ZERO.  ZERO CHANCE.

Here's my point, summarized as quickly as possible in the least preachy way I can muster because it's a new year and who wants to start out with a lecture?

Being the only one who is right isn't an automatic free pass.  It puts you against the grain and that makes you a little wrong.  So if you plan to actually do anything with the info, it can take a little courage to be the only one who is right.  Look at the guy who knew the Space Shuttle wasn't ready for launch.  He was the only one and he wasn't insistent enough to stop "the machine" behind the machine so off it went.

Call it groupthink, herd mentality, conformity... whatever buzzword you like. When everyone else has it wrong and you have it right, you're in a position, and I think you often have to weigh the advantages of calling out the error because the first reaction will be that you are difficult.  You're also going to embarrass a bunch of people.  You're going to screw up the social dynamic.  It better be worth it.  Maybe it is, but you might be wrong.