Are you sure?

deVille tips us to this excellent article from Britannica Blog, "10 Ways to Test Facts."

I've cut out and taped the key question from #10 to my monitor:

10. The Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh suggests that we all tape this little note to our telephones: “Are you sure?” The message is meant to serve as a reminder to help stem wrongheaded talk, idle gossip, and pointless argument.

For myself, I keep that question affixed above every computer I own, within sight of my phones. It doesn’t prevent me from being wrong, would that it did, but it has spared me a bit of embarrassment from time to time.

And think of how the world might be if we all had that question before us at all times. Are you sure about those WMDs? Are you sure about that yellow cake uranium from Niger? Are you sure there’s no such thing as global warming? The list goes on, and on...

Britannica Blog, "10 Ways to Test Facts" (Gregory McNamee - June 26th, 2007)