This one’s a slight philsophical break.
I’ve been on a few different journeys since the last post on this blog… 2 different jobs, consulting work, and then starting my own company with a long term friend and now business partner!
I figured I’d start out with a bit of a shower thought I had. I’d like to occasionally take this blog in a direction of more philosophical thinkery, because that’s always been another interest of mine. I was considering a hypothetical scenario whereby someone whom you’re supposed to respect and whom you want to respect (think: family-in-law, boss, government official), does something untoward. Something that could be addressed with Hanlon’s razor - “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
I find it hard to respect stupid people. Luckily there is some interpretive wiggle room when we determine Hanlon’s definition of “stupidity,” but how much wiggle room do we give? If these are people I want to respect, it biases me to thinking that they’re mostly malicious in these actions. Having to think that they’re a malicious person isn’t good, per se. But I’d rather think that the person was respectable yet malicious instead of stupid and, therfore, unworthy of respect.
It just doesn’t hold out in the long run for wanting any kind of deeper relationship with that kind of person! It would seem that in this, like many other scenarios, the anwswer lies somewhere in the realm of “communicate more.” Or if not that, then “communicate better.” Even as an engineer (read: not innately a fan of communicating), I started to notice in my career and relationships that it really is the quality of your communication that makes all the difference…