This was an interesting post on Oxford's Overcoming Bias Blog. The gist of it is that sometimes we give intellectual (or analagously other types of) heroes superpowers.
We assume that we are incapable of being like them, and any claim that you may be is perceived as one of arrogance.
You can say, I want to be a CEO or a Professor. You can't say, I want to be better than Federer, Woods, or Einstein.
The thought always passes through my mind that some of the world's biggest decision makers are just oridinary people. When the world was on the verge of WWIII during the Cuban missle crisis, the decision lay with JFK and 3 friends. 4 people determining the fate of the world. It seems magical, it seems like they must be endowed with magical powers. But they were just 4 guys... 4 ordinary people.
It seems weird to think of some of our heroes as ordinary people. Nelson Mandela... is someones Dad, someones Grandfather. He makes mistakes, he gets angry... he is sometimes unkind, says hurtful things. I don't know him, but I am pretty confident in these assertions.
Realising that these heroes are ordinary people does have some sort of power. It makes you realise that part of the strength and power of humans is that we build on the knowledge and learnings of others. We move forward. Everything is calaborative and we have the benefit of thousands of years of development.
Some things appear magical, but if you put the effort in (and it does take effort), you can `see through' them. Then you are able to do things that seem magical to others and push it slightly further forward. You may then be someones heroe.
But you will still be just another ordinary person. And isn't that great.
No comments:
Post a Comment