I thinK I do reality based thinking a lot more than most.
I would rather be enlightened than stuck repeatedly with the same thoughts.
I get inspired by new ideas, new interpretations, personal growth, expanded opportunities and risk taking, all of which explain a lot of the successes I've had.
This morning I read an article that changed my thinking about an issue 100%. None of the facts changed one iota, just how I looked at them.
I had always assumed that outsourcing was bad, even unAmerican.
From Wired Magazine (July '04, page 95): "Did you hear the one about the programmer who outsourced his own job? I read about it on Slashdot.org . . . A pseudonymous poster wrote, ‘About a year ago I hired a developed in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 to do the job I get paid $67,000 for. He’s happy to have the work. I’m happy that I only have to work 90 minutes per day, talking code. My employer thinks I’m telecommuting. Now I’m considering getting a second job and doing the same thing.’
The story is instructive, even if apocryphal . . . a case where everyone wins. By subcontracting out the generic parts of his job, the programmer gives himself a promotion. The Indian developer is well paid. The employer gets good code.
In the US, the debate about outsourcing often focuses on large companies laying off employees. . . . But there is another side to outsourcing. By taping foreign markets, startups are creating jobs in the US that otherwise would not exist.
Venture capitalists now routinely demand companies they finance outsource what labor they can. . . ‘It means that I could hire fewer people in the US. It meant that I could hire more people in sakes and marketing, because I didn’t have to concentrate on building R&D in America.’”
You get that point?
The point is not that I am open to having my ideas changed, which I overwhelmingly am.
The point is that here is an interpretation of the facts, the same incontrovertible facts, that puts a different spin on those very facts.
I think my willingness to embrace divergent ideas sets me free.
I fear your (and many conservatives) reluctance to embrace multiple interpretations of the facts not only restrains you, but restrains our great nation, a nation of creativity and opportunity, and I think we cannot afford to restrain ourselves in a competitive world.
I think we succeed by being better, not by shutting the door to outsiders. Philosophically I do not like tariffs and protectivist posturing. I prefer rising to the occasion, thinking and doing better and smarter, and kicking butt.
You don't need to be so rigid.
You don't need to adhere to an arbitrary set of guidelines that constrain and restrict your life.
It is okay to get in touch with your feelings.
It is okay to trust yourself.
Try it. |
