Don't know how I stumbled into your writing, but you're speaking my language here.
This essay is loaded with great lines, e.g. "Trained to perform wisdom rather than earn it."
I write about work, and feel the same lack of true wisdom in all the recycled BS that is unloaded by thought leaders with zero original thought (on top of limited/dubious experience). So much of the advice just isn't true and/or glosses over the messy reality we all live inside. And when we can't replicate the advice in our lives, we feel like something is wrong with us!
In my own words, "While our questions are deep, the answers out there are shallow."
Apologies for being tacky promoting my own writing, but think we have some similar vibes in the series I'm writing called "Not Obvious" about all the simple-minded nonsense you hear about "hard work," "productivity," "management," etc.
I loved this, Evan, especially how raw and self-honest it was. A joy to read from a young whipper snapper like you. ;) I see you leading by example, and many coming to trust you as a result.
I have a different relationship to the term "thought leader," because it wasn't really a term people aspired to have so much as something that was, indeed, earned. It was obvious who the thought leaders were back before the Internet. Now its so easy for anyone to call themselves a coach or thought leader. Cool titles. But those who annoint themselves thought leaders today are not just lacking experience and wisdom, they're also lacking original thought. Humanity does benefit from "thought leaders" who are true pioneers and visionaries... but original thinking and solutions (like wisdom) tends to be hard-won (from deep experience wrestling with problems in the uncomfortable chaos of the unknown, then testing and failing and testing again--lots of failure, shame, frustration, doubt, etc.). What we mostly have today are thought copiers... who then pretend their ideas were original and hard-won.
Don't know how I stumbled into your writing, but you're speaking my language here.
This essay is loaded with great lines, e.g. "Trained to perform wisdom rather than earn it."
I write about work, and feel the same lack of true wisdom in all the recycled BS that is unloaded by thought leaders with zero original thought (on top of limited/dubious experience). So much of the advice just isn't true and/or glosses over the messy reality we all live inside. And when we can't replicate the advice in our lives, we feel like something is wrong with us!
In my own words, "While our questions are deep, the answers out there are shallow."
Apologies for being tacky promoting my own writing, but think we have some similar vibes in the series I'm writing called "Not Obvious" about all the simple-minded nonsense you hear about "hard work," "productivity," "management," etc.
https://newsletter.thewayofwork.com/i/149175100/series-not-obvious
I loved this, Evan, especially how raw and self-honest it was. A joy to read from a young whipper snapper like you. ;) I see you leading by example, and many coming to trust you as a result.
I have a different relationship to the term "thought leader," because it wasn't really a term people aspired to have so much as something that was, indeed, earned. It was obvious who the thought leaders were back before the Internet. Now its so easy for anyone to call themselves a coach or thought leader. Cool titles. But those who annoint themselves thought leaders today are not just lacking experience and wisdom, they're also lacking original thought. Humanity does benefit from "thought leaders" who are true pioneers and visionaries... but original thinking and solutions (like wisdom) tends to be hard-won (from deep experience wrestling with problems in the uncomfortable chaos of the unknown, then testing and failing and testing again--lots of failure, shame, frustration, doubt, etc.). What we mostly have today are thought copiers... who then pretend their ideas were original and hard-won.