Just a quickly tonight ( 🙂 ), taking note of how competence is the arbiter of correct. Competence engenders competence. Incompetence produces excuses. Competence is sustainable, as it provides for itself. Incompetence is not sustainable, as it only takes, never produces, except for excuses.
I note these having recently observed a situation where someone tried to help someone else who was really just looking for freebies. You know, the one who knows everything, until it comes time to do the work, and suddenly doesn’t know anything. Yeah, that kind of guy.
The two parted on the understanding that his problems were far beyond the ability to help. Namely himself.
One of my past organizations, VICA, adopted a tagline: “VICA, the difference that works!” That’s an awesome tagline, and true—VICA (now SkillsUSA) is an outstanding organization of students, educators and industry. But there is an opposite to this saying: “Bullshit, the difference that fails.” Yeah, I just made that up. Doesn’t mean it ain’t true.
Bullshit, things that are not true, are also acts of violence. I define violence as: deception, manipulation, and physical altercation. Bullshit is a bit broader than straight violence, but still within the spirit of violence. Lying is deceiving is manipulating is violence. Getting a yes when they would say no; getting a no when they would say yes.
Competence thrives on the accurate exchange of information. It is about producing. Incompetence requires bullshit and a suspension of dis-belief. It is about taking. By way of violence.
Competence is the difference that works. Bullshit is the difference that fails.
Evil
Willful incompetence is the essence of evil. Bullshitters are evil. My advice is to cancel it right away. In the interest of reform, I let it play for a bit, giving it fair warning, wanting it to reform, then cancel it. No sense getting upset about it, so I do not. People are free to make bad choices, so long as they own the consequences. But they don’t want to do that, do they?
Do you call people out for their bullshit?
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David Weeks, Information Developer, Tampa, Florida.