SETTING MISTAKES RIGHT--WIKI STYLE

Amid much fanfare,our annual techfest APOGEE is over.As a part of a series of guest lectures,Wiki founder Jimmy Wales was here with his fiancee Andrea Weckerlea. A candid and jocular personality uncharacteristic of someone in Forbes Top 25 List,Jimmy spoke at length about his Wiki concepts.

Okkk......stay tuned.I am not going to make your lives hell by droning on his speech.I gonna speak only an incident which Jimmy elucidated.In its December 2005 issue,British journal 'Nature' brought out statistics that on an average, Britannica Encyclopaedia has 3 errors per article whereas Wikipedia has 4 errors per article.Britannica published a 50 page denunciation to repudiate the report.But Jimmy's response was different.He requested editors of 'Nature' to send a copy of the mistakes so that the errors that have crept in might be set right.

Well I am no connoisseur to provide insights into whether Wiki or Britannica is better.But the two different approaches brings out an inherent aspect of life.How do we react when people point out our flaws???

Like Britannica,many of us would probably give a blind eye to our mistakes and instead lambast the person.Why?Because our ego hurts.We feel the the other person is snarky or exhibiting an air of superiority.We wont let our self-esteem to be lowered,shall we?.Well this is perfectly normal.To be frank, even I feel hurt when somebody points out my blunders.There have been few incidents where I  resorted to verbal duel to defend my self-esteem. 

But Jimmy's response helped me to see things in a better light.A critique may be strongly worded but instead of indulging in altercations that bring no good to either side,we should take things in a lighter vein.We should not grumpily hurt the other person also.Infact if a person has pointed out our faults, we should appreciate it.Only people who genuinely care for us will make us notice our flaws.So transcend the limitations of the straitjacket that your ego engulfs you into. To err is human. Don't be vindictive,acknowledge your flaws humbly and do everything you can to set it right.Constructive criticism from others will only help us to get better.So the next time somebody points out my mistake I won't take it personally ;instead I will appreciate it and proactively fix my errors in a Wiki style.

for the 'Nature' incident you can refer to http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/online-encyclopedias-put-to-the-test/2005/12/14/1134500913345.html