Judging Others by Your Own Limits
Why it’s foolish to assume we know everything about anything
Why not?
There is an old saying that “you don’t know what you don’t know” and this is true in almost every context. It sounds rather obvious but that’s the whole point, because it’s very easy as humans for us to forget this fact and assume that we have a clear picture of what we do or don’t understand about things. It’s so easy to lose sight of this concept.
For example, it’s a common misconception within the software industry that some kind of project should take a minimum of X days or require at least Y people working on the project for it to be a success. I’ve seen people argue this up and down for hours, but do they really know what other people are capable of? How do you know that someone else doesn’t have some incredible tools and resources that allow them to perform superior work in 1/100th of the usual time required? You don’t, and that’s the whole point.
Just remember this… in the grand scheme of things, we are currently living in what will become someone else’s idea of an iron age. It’s easy to look back and see the point where civilization simply upgraded their metallurgical skills from bronze to iron and made a technological leap. But how do we look “back” on where we are now in contrast to what doesn’t exist yet in the future? Science fiction gives us a pretty good idea, but even that is largely limited by our current understanding of physics and/or what someone is able to imagine out of thin air.
An Infinite Universe
We live in an incredible universe in which anything is possible. I can do things with electronics that are considered basic today but would have earned me a PhD and a Nobel prize if I were able to bring these skills back in time and show them off to the world as it existed then.
So how does anyone really know what someone else can or can’t do? We don’t, and it’s arrogant and foolish to assume that we do, ever. So if someone tells you they can do something that seems impossible to you, just remember that many people do things that are impossible for others to pull off. There are people who can perform complex math in their heads, people who can jump from multi-story buildings while running through a city and not be injured, and people who can hear complicated pieces of music once and recite them from memory with flawless execution. Can you do those things?
The next time you hear someone claim they can do something that might seem impossible to you, stop and think about what that really means and whether or not they might have a different perspective, skill set, or IQ than your own. It’s OK to be humble and to adjust your point of view when you receive new information that isn’t in line with your existing beliefs.
