Bono's ability to error correct

One of the core ideas of the Outcome Evolution framework is the importance of correcting errors in how we understand the world and how it works. When the outcomes one desires and expects don’t materialise, it’s important to work out why. And often it can come down to inadequate models of reality.

It’s actually quite hard to do this as many people are emotionally attached to their interpretations and understandings of the world. That means that they prefer to retain emotionally comforting but ineffective models instead of finding new effective ones.

In a 2022 interview with the New York Times, Bono shows an impressive willingness to change a foundational component of his worldview when confronted with evidence that it didn’t provide an accurate representation of reality:

I ended up as an activist in a very different place from where I started. I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every problem. I now know that’s not true. There’s a funny moment when you realize that as an activist: The off-ramp out of extreme poverty is, ugh, commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism. I spend a lot of time in countries all over Africa, and they’re like, Eh, we wouldn’t mind a little more globalization actually.

H/t: Alec Stapp