Seth's Blog : Shared reality, diverse opinions
Shared reality, diverse opinions
We're not having a lot of trouble with the "diverse opinions" part.
But they're worthless without shared reality.
At a chess tournament, when the newcomer tries to move his rook diagonally, it's not permitted. "Hey, that's just your opinion," is not a useful response. Because, after all, chess is defined by the rules of the game. If you want to play a different game, begin by getting people to agree to the new rules.
In physics, it doesn't matter how much you want a ping pong ball to accelerate faster, your opinion isn't going to change what happens.
It's tempting to race right into our plans to solve a problem, but too often, we wrap our version of reality tightly into that proposed solution, without thoughtfully getting buy in on the reality before launching into the solution we're so eager to describe.
Shared reality is the foundation on which we can build trust, make promises and engage in a useful discussion on how to achieve our goals.
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