I shared a conference room once with an executive of a multi-national company and a dozen, or so, "underlings" like myself. I was asking questions, challenging, and getting chewed out to the extent folks were checking up on me afterwards; the CTO ordered a bottle of wine at our team dinner later that night in anticipation of calming my nerves.

I spent a few years there trying to be right. It was the lingua franca of importance.

• Right-ness was much more subjective than I needed it to be.
• The desire to be right can beget incredibly rigorous thought.
• Sheer force and confidence, however feigned, was sometimes enough.
• If you didn't know what was right, you could always make the other person wrong.
• Other people's good ideas are a threat.

After assimilating this experience with others before and after, I've come to the conclusion that "being right" is a zero-sum game. I don't deny that establishing right can sometimes even be the difference between life and death or otherwise very important. I prefer:

• Whole pie growing milieus of diverse ideas colliding and sharpening.
• Organic, nuanced, learning in mimetic and challenging environments.
• Sum-greater-than-parts solutions.
• Fun.

So, I choose to put my effort into being good first... then right ;)