Cunningham’s Law

QUOTE

Someone once said…

“To err is human, to edit divine.”

(Anonymous)

CONCEPT

Cunningham’s Law

Cunningham’s Law is the idea that the fastest way to get a correct answer online is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer. The principle plays on a core human tendency: people love to correct others. Especially on the internet.

At its heart, Cunningham’s Law is less about trolling and more about tapping into a social reflex. When someone is wrong—publicly—others are often compelled to step in and fix it.

It’s a counterintuitive insight into learning: sometimes, being wrong out loud is more productive than quietly searching for the truth

STORY

Natural … Correction?

In 2001, a man clicked a stranger’s online encyclopedia entry to fix a small error. That click helped launch the largest collective knowledge project in human history.

That man was Stephen Gilbert, a software engineer and casual contributor to the newly launched Wikipedia. The entry in question was short, slightly wrong, and—most importantly—editable. Gilbert saw the error, fixed it, and moved on.

But what followed wasn’t just a growing article. It was a growing pattern.

Across thousands of entries, early contributors noticed something strange: incorrect information drew more engagement than correct stubs. When something was wrong—whether a date, a definition, or a misattributed quote—someone would almost always correct it. Often quickly. The more confidently wrong the post, the faster the fix.

Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia’s co-founders, recognized this and began encouraging contributors not to worry about getting things perfect. “Just write something,” he’d say. Even if it was flawed, someone would swoop in. A correction here, a footnote there, a better phrasing—until the article took shape.

The effect was measurable.

In a 2005 *Nature* study, Wikipedia was found to be nearly as accurate as *Encyclopedia Britannica*, with roughly 4 errors per article compared to Britannica’s 3. Across millions of entries, the platform had evolved from messy beginnings to a surprisingly reliable source—thanks, in part, to the fact that wrong answers sparked the right ones.

Stack Overflow, launched in 2008, took this principle further. Programmers would post a buggy code snippet and say, “Why doesn’t this work?” In minutes, others would diagnose the problem, offer improvements, or post more efficient alternatives.

The correction impulse became the engine of learning.

Even Reddit forums and niche Discord servers operate this way. A confidently wrong comment on a topic will often be corrected, sourced, and sometimes lead to an entire educational thread.

Let’s be clear: Cunningham’s Law doesn’t encourage willful misinformation. It encourages vulnerability in public. It rewards starting the conversation, even imperfectly.

It reminds us that learning isn’t always about having the answer—it’s about inviting one.