Standing out | Washington DC

Noah Brier, Believing (Your Own) Hype:

I’ve always felt like everyone was making it up as they went along. No matter how buttoned up any person or company seems, they can’t possibly know everything. One of the big themes in the book is the difference between the people that recognize that limitation and work with it and those that begin to take their own approach as gospel. That latter is a very dangerous thing.

Continuing with a tangent, my comment:

“Echochambers of one” are dangerous places.

A slight tangent: I have a belief that we create these “buttoned-up” personas of ourselves because it’s what society breeds and rewards; business and culture use traditional heuristics to create stereotypes, and anything (or anybody) that cannot be reduced to a simple stereotype is just too hard for society to understand, to promote and to reward.

If we rewarded people (money, popularity, etc.) for admitting to limitations, to admitting to complexity and to not understanding things perfectly, then it would be more prevalent; but as a society, we don’t. We want (and reward) all-knowing heros, and we tear them down once their fallibility is proved.

I also have a belief that once society is used to living a more public life, that once we’ve all been burned once in public, then perhaps we will stop vilifying the mistakes of “public” people. A hope :)

Highly related: Doogie Howser, Md.:

Before my first solo surgery, thinking I wasn’t perfect was my greatest fear. But, knowing I’m not perfect has become my greatest asset.

(via Jay Parkinson)