Both can be right

Today I argued with my wife on which channel is Goblin Korean drama is shown at. My wife said Oh!K while I said TvN. Both of us were confident that we are right. We also believed that we had solid proof on our argument. So my wife presented the 8 days magazine writing that Goblin is shown in Oh!K while I show the web page showing that Goblin is by TvN.

It turns out that both of us are right. Goblin is aired by TvN in South Korea. Although we have the option of watching TvN in Singapore, somehow Oh!K acquired the right to broadcast it in this region. In other word, in Singapore, Goblin is only available in Oh!K instead of TvN.

This reminds me on my conversation with my colleague this afternoon. Both of us were confident about something. At the end I thought I was the one who is right as I had solid proof where he didn’t. But after I came back to my desk, I found another case where what my colleague said was totally right. In other word, both of us are right. In the situation that I presented to him during the discussion, I was right. But on another case that I didn’t consider in the discussion, he is right.

It also reminds me on the course Model Thinking where it gave example where competing statements such as two cooks spoil the broth and two is better than one can be both right. The crucial part is to know under which situation one holds and what other situation another holds.

Just like what is mentioned in the Serenity Prayer. There are both things that we can change and things we cannot change. The wisdom we need is to know under which situation one holds.