Imagine running 100m in 13.47 seconds
Look, I get it. You're unimpressed. I can practically hear the skepticism. 'Local jog?'. 'Amateur hour at the community track?'. 'My grandma could do better.' 'I could do that after a six-pack.'! 'Is he bragging?' you ask.
But hold on. What if I told you that 13.47 seconds is a world record? A world record held by a 70-year-old man. Seventy! And here's the kicker: it's just 0.01 seconds off the world record for a 7-year-old. Yes, 7. Let that sink in.
Context. Yeah, that thing one keeps forgetting. This short essay explores why we consistently misinterpret reality. My claim: without accounting for context, decision making is flawed and advice is noise.
Context matters. It's the frequently ignored, yet essential, framework that shapes our understanding, decision-making, and interactions. Meaning is constructed and interpreted within this framework. Simply put, without context, conclusions are meaningless. It’s a matter of statistics (we’ll return to this point later in the essay).
And yet, a substantial number of self-development authors persist in this delusion of context-free wisdom. Observe this modern industrial complex. It's a masterclass in binary thinking. 'Follow these rules’, 'Three steps to a life leadership nirvana', ‘Stop doing this!’. The more definitive the pronouncement, the more likely the underlying logic is held together with duct tape and wishful thinking. Shocking, I know.
Social media amplifies this absolutist thinking, but it's pervasive in popular books too: 'Four pillars of happiness’, no more, no less. 'Destination over journey.' 'Journey over destination.' 'Relationships are everything'. While these might offer valuable lenses, they're not the only ones, and they certainly don't preclude each other. Life is more complex than that, which brings us back to the importance of context.
Access and download below the full essay.
A simplified version of this article is available - in three separate parts - on my LinkedIn Newsletter of the same name.
Why (almost) Everything Is Context
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