Over the years on twitter, one rather comical 'debate' situation I've seen is people asking whether I have ever considered the option I might be wrong. Now, of course, sometimes this is a genuine query, sometimes it's just a debate trick.

If it's a genuine query, I can comfortably say that I also have to live with the uncertainty of live, interpreting research results, and can't always be sure, nor am always right. In some areas I do think I've built up considerable expertise, so that hopefully counts for st.

The 'debate trick' is more annoying because there is no real engagement then. Of course, without that, simply asking 'have you considered you might be wrong' is simply a polite way of suggesting (insinuating? ;-) you *are* wrong, while conveying images of stubbornness.

If you show some uncertainty, then the debater might say 'well, if you're not even sure about your convictions, why should I?'. The focus is not on arguments any more, but simply on why someone comes over as overly sure or unsure.

Note that I think this is unhelpful for *both* directions. If someone comes over as sure (or arrogant? pedantic?), yes that can be annoying but isn't important. But the same holds for coming over as uncertain.

And this is the interesting part for me. Overly certain people sometimes see uncertainty as a weakness. They know how the world is (and even if they don't, they might say they do, being certain is the image) and how could someone who says they don't know for sure....

...ever be right?

It shouldn't matter, though. Just do arguments.