What you’re looking for

Over the holidays I overheard a conversation that amused me. One relative was telling the other about robber barons.

”No, you mean rubber barons,” the other corrected.

”No, it’s robber with an ‘o’.”

”No, it’s rubber with a ‘u’.”

”No, I’ve never heard of rubber barons. I’m talking about robber barons,” the first one said.

”Are you sure it’s not rubber? I’ve never heard of robber barons…”

And on and on this conversation went until the first relative went away to check online. They came back excited, “I was right! I knew I was right! It’s robber barons!” They proudly showed the Wikipedia page and listed the names.

And the other graciously conceded.

Which they shouldn’t have because they were also right. There were rubber barons.

However, the discussion ended because the first relative found what they were looking for.

What would have happened if they’d looked up both robber AND rubber barons? They would have discovered both types of barons existed and would have learned something in the meanwhile.

Too often we spend so much of our time trying to prove ourselves right, that we forget there’s always an opportunity to learn something new.