[catwind7]

it seems to come from the same place of wanting a simple rule to pattern match against some problem space so we don't have to think too hard about it every time.

also ... the author cites sam altman as evidence that his thinking is on the right track, but can you really argue against a statement like "Almost everyone I’ve ever met would be well-served by spending more time thinking about what to focus on"? that's about as close to a one size fits all statement as "almost everyone who succeeds thinks"

i sometimes wonder if this comes from a place of fear. Maybe we're scared of really listening to customers / users / colleagues / stakeholders and so we invent these rules to hold ourselves accountable for what's probably pretty obvious from the outside

[kthejoker2]

I'm a consultant, been on thousands of calls with customers, partners, colleagues ... after all this time it is still truly astounding how many people wait to talk instead of listen, and cannot or will not exhibit professional empathy and curiosity.

It truly is just not in our nature.

[testmasterflex]

By nature we choose the path of least resistance. Because it’s easier if possible. It costs less.

We are also always trying to navigate the world constantly, and talking is a way to test our world view against other people. This is why we talk.

So; Talking (articulating the world view) and hopefully getting a affirming response to that is less expensive to our system than throwing away that paradigm and learning a new one.

[catwind7]

I agree with the first part of what you said, but I don't think plain listening is a "new paradigm", albeit I'll grant that it's probably a skill that can be improved.

to circle back to the original topic of understanding the problem, a big part of that is being observant and attentive to the needs of users. In that context and using your framing of this in terms of cost and resistance, I agree that simply talking and stating opinions is far easier than shutting up, talking to users, and gathering real information about what they actually want

[catwind7]

it really sucks and I feel it's gotten worse with zoom. Sitting in retro meetings in the past year I've definitely noticed an uptick in people just talking and not actually responding to what someone just said. very frustrating.