The title of this blog is aspirational…
Understanding humans is hard. And, weirdly, it’s also hard not to automatically assume that we understand humans. Weirdly, this applies to understanding ourselves as well as others. For me, one solution has been to add an extra layer of trying to understand people into the mix, because that at least slows me down.
So, my method, as counterintuitive as it sounds, is to try to understand humans–including myself–by inserting the additional project of understanding other people’s efforts at trying to understand people squarely in between me and the people I want to understand.
Understanding each other and ourselves is also important. I think a lot of people can understand the frustration of feeling misunderstood. This isn’t the only or biggest problem facing us. There are many many other, more important issues. But in some cases, the roadblocks that emerge when we do feel misunderstood seem to prevent us from getting things done when it comes to these other, more important and pressing issues.
So, maybe getting better at understanding each other and ourselves is a good skill to have, if we want to be able to deal with the biggest, most important issues that arise, especially the ones that require us to work together (I’m aware that this ending note has a sort of naive/hokey earnestness to it that might be hard for some people to take seriously, but one thing I do understand about myself is that sometimes I have a sort of naive/hokey earnestness that is hard for some people to take seriously, and it’s better to just own it than to pretend otherwise).
Essays Concerning Understanding Humans 