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>Contrast that with the simplicity, say, of the Golden Rule, or Rawls' Veil of Ignorance [1], or the Eightfold Path [2]. Those are trickier to apply, because yo
by lsc 13y ago
>Contrast that with the simplicity, say, of the Golden Rule, or Rawls' Veil of Ignorance [1], or the Eightfold Path [2]. Those are trickier to apply, because you have to do the unpacking yourself. But they're also harder to fool yourself and fool others with.
I think the golden rule is a perfect example of how overly-simplified rules, well, just don't work very well. And yeah, it's easy to "fool yourself" or justify whatever it is you want to do with the golden rule. It offers no more guidance than the content-free "Don't be an asshole." The golden rule involves a lot of assumptions that the other guy is, well, like you, or if you take the "treat them how they want to be treated" interpretation, then it takes a lot of guessing as to what they want.
For me, leadership means taking responsibility for failures, distributing credit for successes, and listening to the right people when it comes time to make a decision, and taking responsibility, again, for the emotionally difficult parts of that decision. Like firing people. You need to listen to the other people on your team; unless you are a very small team, that should be the largest part of the decision. But on an emotional level, those people you are asking, and those people who are getting fired both need to feel like you, the leader, are actually doing the firing.
For most people, though, that's not a leader, that's a wimp. For most people, the primary characteristics of a leader are decisiveness, dominance and charisma, things that I usually regard in a negative light.
- wpietri 13y agoI agree with you entirely on leadership. But I disagree entirely on the golden rule. I hear about people all the time who justify some action with, "Well, it isn't illegal". Because with a legal code as complex as the one in the US, it's easy to lose sight of "it's right". Empathy, though, is a foundation of human moral reasoning, and the golden rule points that out. You can see this in kids all the time. There's the classic "but I didn't break rule X" defense, wherein the kid hacks the rules. E.g., "You said not to touch him." But "How would you feel in that situation?" and "How do you think they feel?" are much harder to hack. Even if the transgressor is able to self-fool, the flaws are much more obvious to third parties. The apparent lack of content of the golden rule is a benefit; the simplicity leaves less room to hide.
- lsc 13y agoI dono. Every time I've gotten fucked in business... I mean, really fucked, it was by a person who was a really nice person. A really empathetic person. I don't think "nice" and "empathetic" has as much to do with 'ethical' as you think. From what I've seen? good businesspeople and good salespeople are absolute masters of self-justification, and they really believe it in their hearts. To me? this is one of the ugliest parts of becoming a business person. Not only are you doing something terrible to another human, but you are going on like you are doing them a favor while you are doing it. Human emotions are weird things. None of them conform to anything like a logical system.
- wpietri 13y agoThat strikes me as sociopathy, not actual kindness. Or at the very least, such an education in bullshit that they literally can no longer tell right from wrong. People like that are rarely constrained by rules, either, because they can justify that just as well. Also, I believe that ethics is mainly an elaboration of our moral sense, which appears to be biologically rooted. For more, I recommend the work of de Waal, and his TED talk is a great place to start: http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_moral...
- mkempe 13y agoThe deep problem with successful sociopaths is that they can manipulate others to believe they are being kind. I've seen it a few times. Once you step back it feels obvious and bizarre, but before you can do that you're caught in their web. What code of ethics protects against that?
- wpietri 13y agoThat's not the job of a code of ethics. Ethics are about your choices and their impact on others. Ways to protect against sociopaths and narcissists include education (there are good books on both), experience, and adopting standard business practices (e.g., no work without a contract, do due diligence on your business partners, basing trust on successful experience, managing risk exposure).