what’s the difference between unwilling and unable?

lots of people do have poor reading comprehension and are lousy listeners. are they unwilling or unable?

In Andy Grove’s High Output Management, he talks about how, in the context of the workplace, there are only ever two reasons why somebody isn’t doing something. Either they lack the ability, or the motivation. Either they can’t do it, or they don’t want to do it. And so if you’re someone’s manager, you either have to train or motivate people in order to get them to do whatever needs to be done. Training and motivation are, of course, more complicated things in turn, but those are the broad strokes.

When I first read this I found myself kind of startled. It seemed like a very reductive model. But… could it be true? I was reminded of other remarkably simple models in other domains. Jane Jacobs argued that all wealth is created by specialization and trade. I believe it now, but I hesitated to accept that it might be that simple. David Deutsch has something similarly elegant to say about how knowledge comes from conjecture and criticism, as we strive towards better and better explanations.

I’ve carried the model with me since I read it, and I’ve been testing it out, and over time

I guess rather than write some sort of grand theory about everybody else I could just examine myself in public

and speaking of which it’s interesting to me how some people think examining oneself in public is narcissistic

I want to examine something, I’m a nerd, I like to examine things. If anybody was willing to give me access to their lives, I would be happy to examine them

Rosalind: “Insecurity creates coercion by accident: it emits a field of “i wont be okay unless you do what i am hoping”. Anyone programmed to respond to such a field will comply, but (sooner or later) perceive you as coercing them.” Is this a causality-laundering power play?

thread QTing robert greene – people choosing to be self-absorbed because they can afford it https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1651642061945442304

tbc

i think the best way to take this further will be to examine my own life. what have i been able to do? what have I tried to do? what have I failed at? Why? how do I deal with my failures?

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(2024oct15) how much agency do people have, really? some people believe that free will doesn’t exist at all, which seems suspiciously simple to me. some people believe that everyone has infinite agency, which also seems suspiciously simple, and it also seems like it does not describe the reality we live in. though i suppose in both cases you could tack on more explanation. if everyone has infinite agency, then anybody who’s stuck in a cycle of wretchedness is there on purpose, because they want to be, because they like it that way. the book ‘the courage to be disliked’ takes on this line of argument, and i do think that… while it shouldn’t be the only lens someone uses to view the world, it can be a useful one to consider, at least temporarily.

when i examine myself, i find it seemingly obvious that i have more agency in some domains and less in others. there are some tasks i’m very good at performing. some contexts i’m able to navigate deftly, others not so much. but where am i going with this…?