Type the year you were born above. We’ll show you every claim you were likely taught in school - from nutrition to history to psychology - that turned out to be wrong.
Being Wrong is How We Get Better. Here’s Why.
The scientific method isn’t just a classroom procedure - it’s humanity’s most powerful tool for replacing bad ideas with less-wrong ones.
Not induction - explanation
Science doesn’t just look at history and say “it must be this way.” It creates explanatory theories - accounts of why something is true - and then works hard to prove them wrong. A theory that can’t be proven wrong is not science; it’s prophecy.
Good Explanations
Philosopher David Deutsch, in The Beginning of Infinity, argues that progress is driven by Good Explanations: hard to vary, far-reaching accounts of reality. They’re not just summaries of past observations - they explain why things work, and that’s what makes them powerful enough to be testable and correctable.
The Beginning of Infinity
Deutsch argues we are at the beginning - not end - of human knowledge. Every correction on this page represents progress: a flawed explanation replaced by a better one. There is no limit to how much better our understanding can become, as long as we remain open to being wrong.
Error-correction as a feature
The items on this site aren’t failures - they’re the system working. Textbooks got updated. Studies were challenged. Nobel Prizes were awarded for discoveries that overturned decades of “settled” thinking (see: H. pylori and ulcers, 1982). That’s not a bug; it’s the whole point.
“The growth of knowledge consists entirely in the correction of mistakes. It is the process of conjectures and refutations. Every theory, even the best, is only a conjecture, and science is a method for detecting and eliminating error.”- Karl Popper, as expanded by David Deutsch in The Beginning of Infinity (2011)
“We are at the beginning of infinity. Our knowledge is finite, but our ignorance - and therefore our potential for growth - is infinite. The most important things we will ever discover are the ones we haven’t thought of yet.”- David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity
The Scientific Method: How We Get Less Wrong
Every entry on this site passed through this process before being corrected.
Observe & Question
Notice a pattern. Ask why - not just what. “Ulcers are common in stressed people” is an observation. “Stress causes ulcers” is a theory to be tested.
Form a Testable Hypothesis
A good hypothesis makes a specific, falsifiable prediction. If there’s no imaginable evidence that could prove it wrong, it’s not science - it’s an untestable belief.
Try Hard to Disprove It
Run experiments designed to break your theory, not confirm it. Barry Marshall drank a beaker of H. pylori to prove bacteria cause ulcers. That’s science.
Share & Replicate
Publish methods so others can repeat the experiment independently. Single studies are suggestions. Replicated results across many labs become strong evidence.
Revise or Replace the Theory
When evidence contradicts your theory, the theory changes - not the evidence. This is not a weakness; this is the mechanism that produced every item of correct knowledge humanity possesses.
Repeat Forever
There is no final answer. Every theory in use today is a placeholder - the best explanation we have so far, waiting to be improved. Deutsch calls this the beginning of infinity, not the end of knowledge.
Know Something That Turned Out to Be Wrong?
If you remember being taught something that has since been disproven, suggest it below. Every submission is reviewed before being added.