Discovering truth >>> Avoiding error

As a general rule, discovering truth seems far more beneficial than avoiding error.

To illustrate —

Discovering a truth: Dinosaurs are real. This is knowledge you can use to corroborate other things.

Avoiding an error: Dragons aren’t real. Establishing Dragons aren’t real does not establish that anything else is real. Instead of having a new piece of information to corroborate other things with, you have found something to exclude — you have removed information from your repertoire. Removing things involves risk. It’s very possible you just haven’t found the right set of corroborations to become convinced yet, but by removing a possibility, you usurp the future — you guarantee you’ll never learn that particular thing, even if it’s true.

To summarize —

• The strategy of discovering truths “unlocks” more truths via corroboration.

• The strategy of avoiding error creates more errors by prematurely causing you to negate things.