# Walk on Two Legs / 两条腿走路

> Published 2026-05-12 · By lawted (https://x.com/lawted2) · Published on HA7CH (https://ha7ch.com)
> Canonical: https://ha7ch.com/writing/walk-on-two-legs

## English

At dinner today a friend brought up this question: why does the US political system have an auto-repair mechanism?

It's pretty simple. Every government can publicly say the previous one was wrong. That sounds normal, but think about it. It means the system can go left, can go right, can go left-right-left-right, and it just keeps moving. Working with two legs.

Most people can't do this. Because we're always scared. Scared that when we publish our ideas, someone will say you're fucking stupid. Scared that something we told a friend last week gets screenshotted and thrown back at us: look how much you've changed. So we either say nothing, or we hold a position we already know is wrong.

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But you can treat every period of yourself as a different person.

Next week, you can say: what I wrote last week was wrong. I wasn't clever enough then. After that I saw something, I experienced something, so my judgment changed. That's a good update.

Everything you write today, you don't need to protect it with your whole life. It's just today's version. Look at the date on this article. May 12. This is a snapshot of May 12. It might change tomorrow, next week, next month. Or it might be right forever. Both are fine.

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Your mind only has before and after. There is no high and low.

Because it's dynamic. Yesterday is right and today may be wrong. And even worse, you don't know you're wrong today. But that's very possible.

Every day is different. Who you meet, what you read, what you talk about at dinner — it all has a huge impact on your judgment. That's pretty normal.

So don't chase a straight upward mind curve. That curve doesn't exist. If you pursue it, you're just going to end up saying nothing.

Walk on two legs. Left right, left right. That's how we work.

## 中文

今天和朋友吃饭，聊到一个观点：为什么美国的政权有一种自动修复机制？

很简单。每一届政府都可以公开说，上一届是错的。这件事听起来很普通，但你仔细想，这其实非常牛逼。它意味着整个系统可以左，可以右，可以左右左右地走，但它一直在走。两条腿走路。

我们很多人做不到这件事。不是因为认知不够，而是因为怕。怕发出来以后别人觉得你蠢，怕上周说了一件事这周被打脸，怕被人截图说你前后矛盾。所以大多数人就干脆不说，少做少错，不做不错。

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但其实你完全可以把每一个时期的自己当成不同的人。

下周的你，完全可以站出来说：上周那些话是错的。我那时候认知不够。后来我看到了什么，经历了什么，所以我今天的判断变了。这不是打脸，这是更新。

你今天写下来的东西，不是一份需要你用余生去捍卫的声明。它只是你今天这个版本的快照。

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认知只有先后，没有高低。

而且它是动态的。昨天是对的，今天可能是错的。更麻烦的是，你今天意识不到自己今天是错的。这也完全有可能。

每天都会不一样。你今天遇见了什么人，读了什么，吃饭的时候聊了什么，都会影响你的判断。这不是软弱，这是正常的。

所以，不要去追求一条永远笔直向上的认知曲线。那种曲线不存在，追求它只会让你越来越不敢开口。

两条腿走路，左右左右，一直往前走。这才是真的在走路。