That’s because life is so darn strange that we often don’t know if something is good or bad until it has had a chance to play out, possibly over decades. There’s a temptation in blogging to say outrageous things and make strong claims to get attention, but you give up integrity in the process. If you’re wishy-washy, though, people assume you aren’t thinking things through, even though you are. Years ago, a boss advised me never to say “I don’t know” in a meeting, because it made me look weak, even though I often didn’t know and didn’t want to make something up – I wanted to go back to my desk and do research and come up with an answer.
We’d all be better off if more people admitted when they didn’t know something and that they needed to go back and do more research or talk to more people.
Kurt Vonnegut talked about this very issue, which he said separated great literature from the rest. He used “Hamlet” as a reference point. It and other Shakespearean dramas are, well, Shakespearean in large part because people are facing a series of events and changes in their relationships, and they do not know whether these things are good or bad.
We’re all grappling with this as we go through life.
The media industry is in a tremendous state of flux. The financial services industry is always in flux. And life is just one big ride on the tilt-a-whirl, is it not?
So that’s what I’m thinking about. Boring, huh? And is it good, or is it bad?
