Benjamin Franklin once noted not to “throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.”

The impulse to point out other’s mistakes is not a hallmark of the pre-frontal cortex. It assumes one is resting on a pedestal. It provides temporary comfort to the insecure spirit. Finding flaws in others tastes similar to seeking revenge. It is human nature. But it is not honorable.

Even in highly evolved societies humans constantly throw rocks at each other, if only more subtle and concealed. I see it in my field (architectural conservation and history): the restoration treatment I do is “better” than the work of previous conservators. Historians are not exempt: revisionist history proving previous minds wrong fuels much of new research. For that matter, this impulse moves the gears of peer-review.

While not honorable, we humans figured out how to harness these impulses for the betterment of society. The system of checks and balances in any institution is rests on the primal, individual motivation to keep others in check. Competing individuals trying to prove each other wrong. An impulse that oils the engine of progress. And so the net effect is honorable.