when I was a child, I thought smart people were in charge. when I got older, I realized you didn't have to be smart to be in charge. but the piece that was hardest to learn is that no one is really in charge at all. no one's going to fix it beyond us.
Anyway, in my personal experience, one of the most important roles to bring change is that of an organizer. Organizers look at existing power structures and systems and set specific, attainable goals and work with others to achieve those goals and -- any of us can do it. We have to do it.
You can look at a burnt down house and say it's pointless and everything is terrible and give up. Or you start gathering stones and bricks and tools.
And yeah, sometimes you can do both.
I will always turn to the Arthur Ashe quote for help: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.
I share that quote a lot because it helps me. Things seem overwhelming, I feel like there's nothing I can do, the problem's too big. That leads to despair and paralysis. But I know paralysis REALLY does nothing, which spirals me more. That quote reminds me how anything ever happens. It helps me move
Even more shocking: nobody needs to know anything about history, politics, economics, psychology, infrastructures, health and so on, to become a politician, even president.
But for everything else you need training, if not a licence.
I think about this a lot and have come to the, possibly dangerous, conclusion that, with a few exceptions, most things don’t matter at all. I try not to embrace the absurdist philosophy, but it’s getting more difficult everyday and I’m this close () to spending the rest of my life as a beach hermit
We all have limits. Few people can move the world. If you can't, you are not alone.
Be the best person you can be; considerate, humble, determined, etc. If you focus on that, you already do more than most and contribute to a better world. Now THAT is success too. Take breaks at the beach as needed.
🙏 I’m not trying to move the world, just trying to raise a kid to be a content and kind human being. (Albeit one who can also defend herself and have bodily autonomy). When I think she’s ready to go off on her own, then the beach calls.
I'll never forget my first week working for the NY Mets. I'd dreamed about it my whole life and managed to get there.
My assumptions were similar to yours.
"I am going to meet all the geniuses who run my team." There were none. It was a bunch of blue bloods. Competence was in short supply.
#Life
There’s a Bill Gibson quote I frequently fall back on: “The old man was as American as it got, but in what she thought of as some very recently archaic way. Someone who would’ve been in charge of something, in America, when grown-ups still ran things.”
When did you get to the point where you realised the smart people actively avoid getting put in charge, since the person in charge rarely actually controls anything and has to deal with all the blame when things go wrong?
Every job I've ever had has given me a clearer sense that lots of people are figuring it out as they go. This can be either a comfort or seen as license to destroy everything you come into contact with. Parental income a big determining factor there.
Another way of saying it: everyone is in charge.
It’s just such a huge, chaotic mess that it takes a certain mindset to not break down while trying to manage your particular piece of the puzzle.
My nana told me(I think I was 5ish) that just b/c someone is an adult it doesn’t mean that they are right or that they know what they are doing. That stuck w/me all my life. Awkward moments w/adults who didn’t like that I knew they were stupid, yes…being saved from some of those people, priceless.
I'm 64, so since Obama. I've been older than Presidents. Nowadays, I watch pundits on the TV who are as old as my kids.
People “in charge” don't know any more than the rest of us, but generally know how to talk with confidence, even when they're full of shit. I suppose that's why I'm not in charge.
There is definitely someone in charge of this world, but I can not say their name, nor do I want to give them any credit or acknowledgement, but there is a reason our world is the way it is, specifically one person, if they can even be called that.
When I was in my 20's I first heard Howard Stern say on the radio regarding people in power: "nobody knows what they're doing, sad but true". I never forgot that and it holds true for me some decades later.
a fundamental of Continuous Improvement in business is that everyone’s responsible for positive change in the company- it mirrors your post and it absolutely does come down to the individual to make the decision to be the change or simply accept the outcome of change that they chose not to influence
