← Back to Paradoxes

Cunningham's Law

"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."

The Counter-Intuitive Strategy

Named after Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, this law captures a fundamental truth about human psychology: people are far more motivated to correct you than to help you.

Ask a question politely on a forum, and you might wait days for a response. Post something confidently wrong, and corrections will flood in within minutes.

Origin: Steven McGeady coined the term in 2010, based on advice Ward Cunningham gave him in the early 1980s about USENET. The principle has since generalized to all of the internet.

Experience It: Forum Simulator

r/AskReddit
Replies: 0
Time: 0s
Choose a topic:
Y
you_user_42 just now

Results Comparison

Polite Question

Replies
0
Time to First Reply
-
Helpful Answers
0

Wrong Statement

Replies
0
Time to First Reply
-
Corrections (with explanations!)
0

Why Does This Work?

Cultural Parallels

🇫🇷
"Prêcher le faux pour savoir le vrai" French: "Preach the falsehood to know the truth"
🇨🇳
拋磚引玉 (Pāo zhuān yǐn yù) Chinese: "Toss a brick to attract jade" — offer something imperfect to get something valuable
🌐
Rubber Duck Debugging Often, explaining your (wrong) understanding reveals the correct answer