The 7 Paradoxes of Being Human
1 min readJan 6, 2017
- We value progress, but progress requires change and we don’t like change — especially when it happens to us.
- We all want to be liked. At the same time, we want to be right. When interacting with others, these desires conflict. We treat disagreements as zero sum and binary — someone is right and someone is wrong.
- We need constraints to unlock productive creativity, yet we reject and rebel against those same constraints.
- We exalt the value of following rules or “doing things the right way”, yet nearly every major success (especially “fat tail” success) comes from breaking/bending/ignoring the rules. And, the people at the top of most organizations would fail kindergarten ethics.
- We treat the ability to be hypocritical as power — we even revere people who’ve reached “post-hypocritical” status, yet we claim to disdain it and revel in exposing it.
- We all talk about how much we hate being sold to, yet we’re sold most of our decisions and opinions. We’re not only susceptible, we crave it.
- We expect logic and reason to impact the decisions of others when we know that our own decisions are emotional.
