People only behave unpredictably when we don’t understand their perspective.
Month: March 2016
You are delusional
You Act as if people are watching you, when nobody is paying attention. Have anxiety about an airplane crashing, and don’t think twice about hopping on a motorcycle. Talk to people that are dead, loved ones, and it comforts you. Are an expert, yet feel insecure and speak with reservations. Are a novice, yet speak with certainty and confidence. Think…
You become what you believe
A sage piece of advice from the Church across the street. This is common sense, and yet when was the last time you took advantage of it?
Are you caught up in back and forth?
I was watching Bill Maher’s Real Time this weekend and I realized that the entire episode is largely a back and forth of hurdling facts and statistics at each other. Pundits go back and forth clamoring for a moment to espouse their cherished perspective that should clear things up, if only everyone else cared about their perspective and weren’t trying…
Fact checking is nonsense
Is there really anything that matters, or that is interesting, that can actually be fact checked? Certainly we can check if a quoted statistic is accurate, but can we check that the statistic is relevant?
What should you believe?
By definition, you can believe whatever you want. And yet I don’t think most of us remind ourselves of that. In fact, we may look at this aspect of believe with disdain. But, what if we embrace it? We all hold beliefs, 1000s of them. For example, that you should look both ways before crossing the road. Certainly something very…
How to listen to what you’re saying
A few days ago I mentioned that teachers occasionally find themselves explaining “this example is probably overkill.” For example, when a tourist asks for directions and you give them twenty routes instead of one. What I didn’t mention was the irony with which one can say something but not really take it to heart. I’ve found myself doing this when…
Less is more
Pricing is not rational, great example:
Integrity is not consistency
Last week I talked about preaching being more important than practice. Part of the reason the phrase “practice what you preach” is so popular is because we humans are tuned in to disparities between what one extols and what one exhibits. In a heart beat we know if someone is saying one thing and doing another. We have an intuitive…
Preaching is more important than practice
It’s easy to take offense when someone extols a virtue that you don’t feel they exhibit. I’ve been called out on this many times. For example, when someone accuses me of being inconsiderate, I’d rather not react in kind with “how dare you.” I’d rather listen and see if I can understand why the other person is hurting. I’d prefer…