Don’t Be So Sure

The fastest way to feel smart is to decide who’s not.
Label. Dismiss. Move on.

He’s lazy.
She’s entitled.
They’re arrogant.
Karen.
Woke.
MAGA.
Liberal.
Uneducated.
Out of touch.

Sorted. Boxed. Gone.

Why do we do this?

Kierkegaard said, “You label me so you can negate me.”

Also…It saves us time. Nuance takes effort. Curiosity requires humility.

The fallacy in it all?

What we label, we stop learning from.
What we dismiss, we can’t understand.
What we reduce, we never fully see.

If your job is to grow—your business, your team, your capacity—you can’t afford to be so quick to dismiss. You can’t afford to be done thinking. Or done listening. Or done wondering if maybe, just maybe, you missed something.

Great leaders hold the paradox. They resist picking a side—at least long enough to see what’s really going on.

They stay in the tension.
They study what doesn’t sit right.
They learn from the opposition.

Because clarity doesn’t come from snap judgment. It comes from patience. From courage. From the willingness to ask again:

What am I not seeing?