Stop Making Sense

I am sitting here in the office listening to two people separated by a common language. One person is talking about something, the other person is talking about the same thing, and neither of them has any idea what the other one is talking about.

There is a lot of talk in meetings about filters, i.e. viewing the world from your point of view and disregarding other people’s points of view. I am not a big fan of this sort of talk; it is usually a job creation method for people who don’t do the real work. The filter thing makes sense though; it is very hard to see past your own experience / knowledge.

I try to overcome this by reading and listening and learning, this has helped me a great deal. I grew up in a very insular world and had to teach myself everything about the wider world, I certainly had a very thick filter to view through. This is not to say that I am open to all viewpoints, God forbid I should ever wimp out and be one of those that sit in a room agreeing with the local right wing nutcase and left wing blubberer simultaneously.

Opinions are good, some filters are good. We should be proud of our outrage at mediocrity and extremism. But we should not allow the filters to transform us into the mediocre or extreme.