For you kids out there, in the olden days we learned about the world through a thing called “newspapers,” delivered to our homes or purchased at a newsstand. Every now and then the writer or the editor or the printer would make a mistake. At some point over the next few days the mistake would be discovered and the news organization would publish “errata,” which is a fancy word for “errors.” If the error were small, like a misprint, there would be a tiny section printed, to set the record straight. If the error were big, there might be significant discussion about lapses in judgement and assigning blame.
Today we don’t have as many errata published, because we get news delivered electronically. You don’t always have to acknowledge errors in a confessional way, because you can simply go back and fix them. OR, you can remove them and pretend they never existed. In a sense you can simply rewrite history.
Publishers appreciate this flexibility because they can avoid potentially embarrassing mistakes, or they can change their positions and mistakes more flexibly. By contrast, back in the days of print media, the words were out there on printed paper throughout the world, with no possibility of recall.
At LOT we will inevitably make mistakes, and I want to confess the error of my ways. I COULD go back and edit the published blog post, but maybe this is a moment to admit my mistake and submit to public flogging. Radical openness is, after all, one of our governing values. It’s also true that humans, and scientific endeavors for that matter, are all about collecting and assimilating new information, and then changing course. Consider this a personal moment for improvement.
So here is the mistake. I ran some calculations incorrectly and published them. Specifically I assumed that there are 2,000 pounds in a metric ton. In fact, there are 2,204.62 pounds in a metric ton. I would have quickly recognized this if I had reminded myself of the rough pounds-to-kilos conversion of 2.2 pounds per kilo. I would have also gotten it more quickly had I remembered that the metric system is all about base 10 multiples, and that a metric ton is one thousand kilograms.
My bad. I make progress. We all do. Better to show your work and your drafts and your progress than to pretend you got it write on the first try.
So, I’m resolving that a general editorial policy for this blog will be to allow authors to publish errata at the end of their story, rather than to rewrite the blog entirely. This more closely aligns with the human condition, and we want to show that we are human. We will make space for humans of good will, who are attempting to do the right thing in steadily more effective ways.
