It’s weird. I was just trying to put my finger on why I feel so uncomfortable playing the role of “opinionated political columnist,” and then I stumble across this observation on the fascinating blog Overcoming Bias.
“[T]o promote rationality on interesting important topics, your overwhelming consideration simply must be: on what topics will the world’s systems for deciding who to hear on what listen substantially to me? Your efforts to ponder and make progress will be largely wasted if you focus on topics where none of the world’s “who to hear on what” systems rate you as someone worth hearing. You must not only find something worth saying, but also something that will be heard.
Yes, existing who-to-hear systems are far from perfect, but that fact simply does not make it rational for you to work on topics where a better system would approve you, if only such systems existed. Wishes are not horses.”
Per my title, this little bit of wisdom seems pertinent not only to blogging but to basically every corner of everyone’s life. What is the world ready to hear you out about? Who is listening-and, more importantly, what can you say that will keep them listening, instead of causing them to tune out? If no one is ready to hear about your political principles and ideals, maybe they are ready to see how you actually live them.
Worth thinking about.