We have to
always remember that the info our brains can process is limited:
-
At some point (a threshold) we
stop analyzing at the same level and start abstracting
-
There is a quote that says:
"One death is a tragedy,
but a million is a statistic"
For example when one dies and we know his story
and the feeling of his family, we are kind of bonded with him and feel bad
about him. But imagine a million people die in a war, we don't the same sad*10^6 …. Even that we know that there are more sad
and tragic stories than the first one … even if we know about every story of
them …. We just start abstracting the number and get the collective feeling
-
Apply this theory to what a
CEO may think and feel of the employees in the lowest level in the company, of
course he doesn't think about them as human-beings with responsibilities and
burdens like the way he does with his close friends and family
Far more; think about the way he thinks about the
stakeholders ….
This is
just how our brains work. So what is the best way to overcome this structural
bug in our brains?
1-
Internalizing:
Bring the people outside your circle inside. Make
sure to get very close to one or two of those outside your circle, emotionally,
so you don't forget about the human side in them and continue treating them as
numbers or obstacles
This is really effective method especially for
high class jobs. A main reason that presidents and kings were turned into
sadistic tyrants is that they kept very far from the citizens and lost that
feeling that they are responsible for the lives of people who are just like
them
2-
The newspaper rule:
Imagine that your decision is printed in the
headlines of the biggest newspaper in the city. Or think about what your
grandchildren would tell you about that decision 30 years later
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