They say that hindsight is 20/20. It’s certainly easy to look back with the benefit of what you know today and ask yourself “what was I thinking?”

It’s especially sobering to look backwards and shake your head when you work in the tech media.

Occasionally I’ll stumble upon some of my old articles and cringe at the positions I’ve taken in the past.

For example: here’s the introduction to a feature article I wrote in 2008 called, simply, “Media Servers:”

If there’s any single product category whose growth qualifies as “explosive,” it’s the media servers. Whatever their configuration, they’re a segment that’s well on its way to mass-market adoption.

I’m not certain that’s it’s possible for me to have been more wrong.

There are other examples, such as where I continued to assert that plasma TV wasn’t going to go away, or that HD-DVD was actually a pretty good idea. But that’s just beating a dead horse.

Stay informed, keep an eye on trends, but most importantly be willing to change your mind when presented with evidence that contradicts what you think.

Author and investor James Altucher has famously said “90% of the time things just don’t work out.” In that context, be prepared to be wrong and to have pivot more often than you might have expected.