Great life-advice-that-you-can-never-hear-too-much-of post from Gus Mueller. It takes guts to admit when you’ve been wrong and to confess publicly that you want to do better and be stronger next time.
Even with the autonomy of the Internet it can be scary to stand up for our personal values. There will always be the dorks who freak out because you stood up for your values and they happen to disagree with you, but most people will either follow your example (if they have the same values) or they will grow in respect for you (because you’ve been honest and sincere).
My grandfather lived to be 100 years old. If the Blanc blood running through my veins holds up like my grandfather’s did, then I’ve still got 68 years to go. Do I really want to spend one ounce of energy trying to make random people on the internet like me? Will that matter at all in six decades from now? I’d rather spend that energy strengthening my own core values, dating my wife, building life-long relationships with my sons, serving my friends, and doing the best creative work I can possibly do.