this bifurcation of perception.............

 

     In the wake of the scientific revolution and certain deadening forms of modernist presumption, the trend has been to sever the bond between objectivity and subjectivity.  Consciousness in the modern West has been informed by trends the follow this severance.  Subjectivity and objectivity are commonly viewed as opposites, even at odds, rather than being component parts of an already reconciled whole.  The hard sciences have sided with objectivity against subjectivity.  The human sciences have done the opposite.  Errors of all kinds follow from this bifurcation of perception and being into two seemingly incompatible worlds of meaning, especially when one side of the dichotomy is elected over the other for arbitrary reasons.  But this is not how Chesterton experienced the world.  Arguably, this is not how anyone experiences the world, despite rationalizations to the contrary.

-Duncan Reyburn, The Roots of the World: The Remarkable Prescience of G. K. Chesterton

objectivity.......................

 

       The life of Darwin demonstrates how a turtle may outrun the hares, aided by extreme objectivity, which helps the objective person end up like the only player without blindfold in a game of pin-the-donkey.     

      If you minimize objectivity, you ignore not only a lesson from Darwin but also one from Einstein.  Einstein said that his successful theories came from: 'Curiosity, concentration, perseverance and self-criticism.'  And by self-criticism he meant the testing and destruction of his own well-loved ideas.

-Charlie Munger, as excerpted from this speech

an affabale complaisance................

 Those who work in an office often feel that, despite the proliferation of contrived metrics they must meet, their job lacks objective standards of the sort provide by, for example, a carpenter's level, and that as a result there is something arbitrary in the dispensing of credit and blame.  The rise of "teamwork" has made it difficult to trace individual responsibility, and opened the way for new and uncanny modes of manipulation of workers by managers, who now appear in the guise of therapists or life coaches. Manager themselves inhabit a bewildering psychic landscape, and are made anxious by the vague imperatives they must answer to.  The college student interviews for a job as a knowledge worker, and finds that the corporate recruiter never asks him about his grades and doesn't care what he majored in.  He senses that what is demanded of him is not knowledge but rather that he project a certain kind of personality, an affable complaisance.  Is all his hard work in school somehow just for show—his ticket to a Potemkin meritocracy?  There seems to be a mismatch between form and content, and a growing sense that the official story we've been telling ourselves about work is somehow false.

-Matthew B. Crawford,  Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

in the heat of the moment...............

      More significant, perhaps, for his fate as a strategist was a trait he first exhibited here in the face of overwhelming odds: He knew when to quit and cut his losses.  This is a much-overlooked military capacity: in the heat of the moment to retain sufficient objectivity to recognize the prospect of sure defeat and then to summon the self-control to reverse course and withdraw.  For some—Grant, for instance—this proved impossible.  But Sherman's military career was studded with such moments, epiphanies of defeat, and they were emblematic of his eventual success.  He came to realize that in war there would be good days and bad days, but the ultimate objectives must always remain paramount.

-Robert L. O'Connell, Fierce Patriot: The Tangles Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman

Not to worry, objectivity is a myth............

      I find the soul a valuable concept, a statement on the dignity of a human life and of the unutterable gravity of human action and experience.  I would add that I find my own soul interesting company, if this did not seem to cast doubts on my impeccable objectivity.

-Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things

Calibration and accountability.................

We don't win bets by being in love with our own ideas.  We win bets by relentlessly striving to calibrate our beliefs and predictions about the future to more accurately represent the world.   In the long run, the more objective person will win against the more biased person.  In that way, betting is a form of accountability to accuracy.  Calibration requires an open-minded consideration of diverse points of view and alternative hypotheses.

-Annie Duke,  Thinking In Bets:  Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

Willingness.............................

"You will have to get over your reluctance to assess what people are like if you want to surround yourself with people who have the qualities you need.  That goes for yourself too.  People almost always find it difficult to identify and accept their own mistakes and weaknesses.  Sometimes it's because they're blind to them, but more often it's because their egos get in the way.  Most likely your associates are equally reluctant to point out your mistakes, because they don't want to hurt you.  You all need to get over this.  More than anything else, what differentiates people who live up to their potential from those who don't is their willingness to look at themselves and others objectively and understand the root causes standing in their way."

-Ray Dalio,  Principles

On objectivity (which is difficult, by the way).....

     The life of Darwin demonstrates how a turtle may outrun a hare, aided by extreme objectivity, which helps the objective person end up like the only player without a blindfold in a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
     If you minimize objectivity, you ignore not only the lesson from Darwin but also from Einstein.  Einstein said that his successful theories came from "Curiosity, concentration, perseverance, and self-criticism."  And by self-criticism, he meant the testing and destruction of his own well-loved ideas.

-Charlie Munger, as extracted from Poor Charlie's Almanack:  The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger