{"id":5513,"date":"2025-10-16T22:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/uncategorized\/most-people-arent-stupid-or-evil-they-just-live-in-a-different-world-with-different-assumptions-than-you-do\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:46:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T22:46:00","slug":"most-people-arent-stupid-or-evil-they-just-live-in-a-different-world-with-different-assumptions-than-you-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/uncategorized\/most-people-arent-stupid-or-evil-they-just-live-in-a-different-world-with-different-assumptions-than-you-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Most people aren\u2019t stupid or evil. They just live in a different world with different assumptions than you do.<\/a>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people aren\u2019t stupid or evil. They just live in a different world with different assumptions than you do.<\/p>\n

If someone\u2019s behavior doesn\u2019t make sense, it usually means you\u2019re missing a key belief, incentive, or context that would make it logical in their world.<\/p>\n

I like to ask myself:
\n \u201cWhat would have to be true in their world (but not in mine) that would make their position obvious?\u201d<\/p>\n

When I find that missing piece, I can communicate with empathy and respect, and people are far more likely to listen, because I have taken the time to understand their world. <\/p>\n

The hard part is that our own assumptions blind us. <\/p>\n

A client once complained that \u201cMy manager should support me instead of blaming me for anything that goes wrong and taking credit for anything that goes well.\u201d But when I asked them “What evidence do you have that this manager will act that way?”, they couldn’t come up with examples. They were confusing what they wanted with reality. <\/p>\n

So if you catch yourself saying, \u201cThey should be doing X,\u201d that\u2019s your cue to pause. Observe the situation objectively. Ask questions. Try to understand their world.<\/p>\n

You might discover that their world is different than you think. That understanding is what will allow you to build a bridge to real influence.<\/p>\n

What examples do you have of learning that someone\u2019s reality was different than you assumed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people aren\u2019t stupid or evil. They just live in a different world with different assumptions than you do. If someone\u2019s behavior doesn\u2019t make sense, it usually means you\u2019re missing a key belief, incentive, or context that would make it logical in their world. I like to ask myself: \u201cWhat would have to be true…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehrlich.com\/linkedin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}