full context of her response
KATHERINE MAHER: What about the hard things? The places where we are prime to disagreements? Say politics and religion. As it turns out, not only does Wikipedia's model work there, it actually works really well. Because in our normal lives, these contentioius conversations tend to erupt over disagreement over what the truth actually is. But the people who write these articles are not focused on the truth, they're focused on something else, which is the best of what we can know right now. After seven years of working with these brilliant folks, I've come to believe they are on to something.
Perhaps, on our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth might not be the right place to start.
In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that is getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.
That is not to say that the truth doesn't exist or to say that the truth isn't important. Clearly the search for the truth has led us to do great things, to learn great things, but I think if I were to really ask you to think about this, one thing you would acknowledge is one reason we have such glorious chronicles to the human experience and all forms of culture is because we acknowledge there are many different truths.
I'm certain that the truth exists for you. And probably for the person sitting next to you. But this may not be the same truth. That is because the truth of the matter is very often for many people what happens when we merge facts about the world with our beliefs about the world. So we all have different truths. They are based on things like where we come from, how we were raised, and how other people perceive us.
