Hi there,
What’s the Story?
Interesting weather here in New York as October begins. It’s nice having lots happening in my professional and personal life and the marathon remains a big focus for me.
This week’s podcast is an interview that was a lot of fun to shoot with an incredible Irishman living in New York. Vivian James Rigney climbed the seven summits and he and I discuss his incredible Everest summit as well as what we love about Ireland and America, how to become a more impactful leader, and why there is so much polarization in the world today: video.owenfitzpatrick.com.
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How to Solve the World’s Problems
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes 38 seconds
If there is one thing I am certain of it is that this title is as overambitious as it gets. Currently, we live in a world full of polarization, fear, and hate. Never before in my lifetime has the discourse been as divisive as it has lately. Of course, there was the Cold War and there have always been international and intercontinental tensions, but the kind of tribalism that exists today is a huge part of our culture.
Having moved to the USA five years ago, I immediately became aware of the political sensitivity. But this has been happening for some time. In 2016, I delivered a TEDx talk called ‘Mind Control’. In it, I said the lines:
“This is how it works, the media put out the lies, Social media comes along and then we polarize, We find ourselves stuck still to our positions, Cause we’re the convicts of our own convictions.”
This idea has been proven true time and time again over the last eight years. We are moving further and further away from each other, and there is no end in sight. One side sees the other side as the source of the problem, and they are the victims. As long as this holds, there is no way forward.
Everything I do is focused on understanding why we believe what we believe and helping to create changes that can make things better. While a lot of the work I do is in the corporate world, so much of what is happening in society today is increasingly relevant to this area of study.
The divisions I see in society are something that I think about constantly, and much of my work is about understanding them so we can make progress in solving this problem.
I’m optimistic not because I have tons of reasons to be. I’m optimistic because it’s better than the alternative. The following suggestions aren’t ‘my’ ideas but ideas that I very much believe in, and many of the wonderful people I get to spend time with believe in them too.
1. CURIOSITY
We need to become more curious about each other. There’s a lot of talk about becoming more tolerant of people. I think that’s the wrong word. Tolerance doesn’t move us closer. Curiosity does.
Curiosity gets us to ask questions of each other. It helps us learn why we think what we think. It helps us get to know one another more deeply. It finds the things we have in common as opposed to what tears us apart.
Recently, I did several podcast interviews. One of them was released yesterday, where I spoke to Vivian Rigney. Vivian is one of the most impressive people you could ever hope to meet. He has climbed seven summits (the highest mountains in the world), including Everest, and he has a thriving executive coaching business in New York. (You can check the episode out here)
Both Vivian and Mike (Mike Goldman, whose interview I released last week— watch it here) talked about the importance of curiosity and how we need it more than ever to have better conversations with those who have a different perspective from us.
I believe that it’s not just about understanding someone else’s point of view, but also understanding their ‘point of feel’. It’s not enough to see the way they see the world but we also need to understand why they feel the way they feel. Curiosity is the art form that can help get us there.
2. NUANCED
Maybe it was social media or the media, but somewhere down the line, we started to go all in on opinions. Once our ‘tribe’ picks a ‘side’ on an issue, that’s our ‘side’ too. This has made us all collectively dumber.
When we choose to believe in something because our group does, we have ceased to think intelligently and instead resort to groupthink. We use our reasoning faculty not to find the truth but to defend our truth. And for the wrong reason.
We need to become more nuanced in our point of view and make our own minds up about the issue itself rather than letting ourselves drink the flavor aid that is presented to us. Never before has critical thinking become so ‘critical’.
A good test of this is how good people would be to predict what side of an issue we would likely be on. The more predictable we are, the more likely we are to follow the tribal direction. The more nuanced we are, the more likely we are to think better about the issues.
3. BALANCED
The other element that is badly needed in today’s world is more balance. The media often doesn’t just ‘make things up’. Most of the time, it misdirects us by focusing our attention on what it wants us to think about. It decides what we will talk about and it presents a ‘side’.
When I say balanced, I’m not just talking about nuance. I’m talking about always presenting both arguments and their merits and weaknesses. I have a rule that whenever I hear of a one-sided argument that doesn’t acknowledge another perspective, I instantly doubt it.
Far too often, the media and social media pieces we watch or read lean into a one-sided narrative. If you watched BORAT 2, it was undoubtedly propaganda on the side of the left. If you watched I’M NOT RACIST, it was absolutely propaganda on the side of the right. While both used humor as a tool to tell a story, the stories were very much influenced by the political views of the creators. The problem isn’t that such films exist. The problem is when people buy into the idea that they are fair and balanced or worse – the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Balanced means making fun of both sides equally. It means fairly showing both arguments.
In a world where we all start becoming more curious, nuanced, and balanced, I believe we can start making things better. But to do so we must recognize that it won’t always be easy. Because life isn’t as simple as that.
The title of this article was ‘How to solve the world’s problems’, but that uses hyperbole, which is part of the problem. It also gets the eyeballs though. A more accurate title might be ‘Three core qualities that we can leverage to improve how we communicate with each other to reduce polarization’.
But that won’t get any clicks. Balance and nuance aren’t always sexy. So we should do what we can to make them so. I would love to see a big movement where we strive for these three ideals.
In the meantime, we can only control what we do and how we communicate. Be curious. Be nuanced. Be balanced. This won’t just help us to be better, it’ll also help us talk to each other better… and maybe just maybe get more people to change their minds.
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The Brain Prompt
What areas of your life could benefit from a little more curiosity, nuance, or balance?
Can you think of a time when being more curious helped you understand someone better, or when stepping away from tribal thinking allowed you to see both sides more clearly?
How might embracing these qualities impact the way you engage with others in today’s polarized world?
Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you know who would be curious! They can sign up at owenfitzpatrick.com/newsletter.
Cheers,
Owen.
