13 highlights
-
I would add my own theory: It’s easier to blame other people’s mistakes on stupidity and greed than our own.
-
That’s because when you make a mistake, I judge it solely based on what I see. It’s quick and easy.
-
But when I make a mistake there’s a long and persuasive monologue in my head that justifies bad decisions and adds important context other people don’t see.
-
When judging others’ poor behavior it’s easy to underestimate your own susceptibility to the power of incentives.
-
The worst behavior resides in industries with the most extreme incentives. Finance, where scams are everywhere. High-end art, where counterfeits proliferate.
-
But it’s important to ask: Are immoral people attracted to industries where there are big rewards for bad behavior? Or do big rewards for bad behavior cause good people to slide into immorality, justifying their decisions along the way?
-
Incentives are almost like a drug in their ability to cloud your judgment in a way you would have found unthinkable beforehand. They can get good people to justify all kinds of things.
-
That doesn’t excuse bad behavior. But it’s hard to know what you’d be willing to do until you’re exposed to an extreme incentive, and that blindness makes it easy to criticize other people’s mistakes when you yourself may have been just as tempted if you were in their shoes.
-
It’s hard to tell the difference between boldness and recklessness, greed and ambition, contrarian and wrong.
-
A low-probability bet that fails makes you look like a … failure, maybe even an idiot, in the eyes of others.
-
When judging others you want a simple story – did it work or did it not? And when judging yourself you want a comforting story – “my actions were worthwhile and I’m a good person.”
-
My brother in law, a social worker, recently told me, “All behavior makes sense with enough information.”
-
It’s uncomfortable to think that what you haven’t experienced might change what you believe because it’s admitting your own ignorance. It’s much easier to assume those who disagree with you aren’t thinking as hard as you are – especially when judging others’ mistakes.