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Well, you're not going to be able to change the status quo that confidence is largely admired and taken at face value. That's the world you live in and have to
by brazzy 9y ago
Well, you're not going to be able to change the status quo that confidence is largely admired and taken at face value. That's the world you live in and have to deal with.
But if your specific goal is to prevent overconfident people from "bringing down" those who are less confident (presumably mainly you), your best bet is to move the discussion concrete, measurable past successes and failures, and resist attempts to change the topic away from those.
If the discussion is inherently about plans for the future and there is no past record of achievements (how do you know they're overconfident then?), insist on a process that produces concrete, meaningful process in reasonably short increments so that unrealistic promises will be exposed early on.
- nnq 9y ago> insist on a process that produces concrete, meaningful process in reasonably short increments so that unrealistic promises will be exposed early on This is gold. Might print it and frame it :)
- teekert 9y agoYou like it because it allows you to not change yourself, you are going to change the processes (or at least, people in general like this). It's a way, true, but will it work everywhere? What if you could change yourself to handle these situations better, regardless of the processes? That's the hard way.
- nnq 9y agoI'm not a fan of working "in reasonably short increments". I actually find it painful since I tend to think/work in "leap. then sleep" cycles. But I prefer to weed-out "frauds" fast, even at the expense of inconveniencing people more like myself. Also, communication gets easier - much simpler to explain 1 day or one week of work than 1 month. Even if at times people like me must find creative ways to say "not much happened this week" when you know that the whole work allotted for the following three months will probably happen in one intense week, though you have no idea when the stars will align for that week to happen, and you have to keep pushing rocks with little outside visible progress until the magic happens :)
- skmurphy 9y agoI think the "reasonably short increments" is a way to get acquainted and build shared trust. You may not be at your most productive but you substantially lessen the risk of working with someone who is bullshitting you if you start by taking small steps. You may feel that you cannot promise as much in a short increment as a mighty leap but if both of you deliver on short increment promises then you can take longer steps and then leaps together with much higher shared confidence.
- rootlocus 9y agoI feel a bit stupid, but I don't understand what it means. "insist on a process that produces concrete, meaningful process" is it insisting on a process that produces another process?
- brazzy 9y agoOops. Replace the second "process" with "progress".