If we are going to examine and try to understand Reality (with a capital "R") as it truly is, then we must work under a basic, but very important rule.We must first acknowledge that we can and will make mistakes. The biggest problem that leads from this inevitability is if we are too proud to admit our mistakes and learn from them. There are many historical examples of this mistake leading to a cascade of bigger and bigger mistakes in an attempt to cover up, or prove an incorrect idea, theory, etc. Scientists, theologians, philosophers, leaders, business owners, etc. are all susceptible to this problem. So we must make sure we try our best to avoid this as much as possible.
We can't avoid making mistakes. However, we can try our best to avoid the inability to learn from and correct those mistakes. So with this, we build the first, and most important rule we will work under:
When we find we are wrong, we must admit it and adjust our work to reflect the new, more correct information.
We must reexamine our past work and make sure this new data helps us fix any past problems.
With this rule in place, we continue.