4. since I was a kid, the notion of erasing things I wrote sounded unappealing to me. when I made a mistake in one of my school notebooks, I found I learned more from leaving the mistake in place, next to the correction, than from erasing it. so I don't delete things I've posted; whether or not I still agree with them. looking back and finding things I disapprove of in my past is the flip side of having become a better person.