It’s tempting to play intellectual janitor, cleaning up every messy opinion we face.
But what if abandoning this exhausting habit might be the smartest move we can make?
Because the fact is most people don’t actually want their minds changed. They want to be right. They’ve invested their identity in being right. And when someone’s wrapped their entire self-concept around an idea, your logical arguments bounce off like nerf darts against a brick wall.
The world is full of wrongness. Always has been, always will be.
No one said life would be fair.
But here’s the million-dollar question: is this particular wrongness your responsibility? Does life need to be fair?
Who cares, because most of the time, the answer is a liberating “no.”
Every minute you spend trying to enlighten someone committed to misunderstanding is a minute you’re not spending on your actual priorities. On creating something meaningful. On connecting with people who energize rather than drain you. Of focusing on better things.
This isn’t about intellectual surrender. It’s about resource allocation. We only have so much attention, energy, time to spend
Your attention is finite. Your energy is finite. Your time on this planet is finite.
When you choose to engage with someone’s determined wrongness, you’re making a trade. You’re saying: “I value the microscopic chance of changing this person’s mind more than I value all the other things I could be doing right now.”
That’s a terrible trade almost every time.
So walk away.
Let people be wrong.
It’s not your job to be the correction police.
Who really cares about winning arguments. Build things while everyone else is distracted by petty matters that won’t have any significance tomorrow.
Choose your battles.
Make something that matters.
Joe DiAndrea 