Compulsive self-justification is lethal to honesty

The work of some insightful people, even some geniuses, is lethally flawed by their compulsive need to justify themselves -- past, present, and future. 

And this compulsion works like a cancer on integrity and honesty; until it has subverted then destroyed a person's ability to make a positive and valuable contribution. 

In other words, no matter how able you may be; if you are a Right Man - that is, a man who is compelled to prove, by everything he says and writes, that he was always ultimately right about everything. 

(Or, on those rare occasion that he was "wrong", this was somebody else's fault!)...

Then, no matter that you have produced good work you will first become a tedious bore, and later end-up by ruining your own legacy of good work. 

All you did that was worthwhile, gets buried deep under a sediment of self-aggrandizing rationalizations and exculpatory explanations. 

And by insisting that everything you ever thought, said, or did was actually part of an elaborate and perfect scheme and strategy - you will merely ensure that anyone who cannot accept your infallibility lock, stock and barrel; will be compelled to discard the baby of valid truth you originated. 

The baby goes does the drain; because of the necessity to throw-out a vast reservoir-full of tendentious, defensive, ego-promoting, dirty-bathwater.