Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, China, Content, Context, Creativity, Culture, Grifting, Perspective, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Relevance, Reputation, Research, Respect, Standards
Once upon a time, I did some work with the Google exec, Jonathan Rosenberg.
He was very kind and generous to me, more kind and generous than he should – which I suppose means extra kind and generous – but there’s one thing he said to me that has specifically stayed with me.
We were talking about a book someone had written about google and to paraphrase, he said, “they made us sound more interesting than we were”.
Now I remember this for 2 reasons.
1. At the time I was shocked he thought google wasn’t that interesting … because at the time, they were probably the most interesting and exciting company on the planet.
2. I realised that the book he was referring to was written by an observer, not a participant.
There’s a lot of good things being an observer.
You often see things those inside are too close to realise.
An objective perspective that shines a light on things others may take for granted or not even considered.
But … and it’s a big but … there’s also a shitload of danger.
Because ultimately, you are evaluating from your own perspective which is laden with your own prejudices, contexts and opinions.
Now that’s not necessarily wrong, where it goes dodgy is when you ignore that and just write your view as fact. That what you see is declared as a statement that suggests everyone thinks this way. Which is – generally – ego bollocks.
I used to see this all the time in China.
People coming in making big points based on their observations of the country without realising what they think is important, is only because it’s new to them rather than realising its normality to the people they’re referring to.
It was like they couldn’t wait to shout and share.
To position themselves as ‘in the action’, when really they were just casual observers.
Desperate to broadcast to the mass rather than take the time to consider others contexts and cultural references.
There’s a lot of that around at the moment.
Post rationalised, personal perspectives expressed as unquestionable fact.
Or worse, unquestionable genius.
God complex pricks … as a friend of mine refers to them.
And worse, it attracts others like them who value shortcuts than substance.
Look on Linkedin and it’s everywhere. Opinions spouted as fact by people who have the most tenuous relationship with what they are talking about.
Now don’t get me wrong, outsiders have an important role for reasons mentioned above … but that only works when they’re focused on gaining understanding rather than demanding answers and accepting their view may have to evolve with additional knowledge and information … because when they do that, they’re creating contexts based on their own personal blinkers/ego and everyone suffers for it.