I have this tendency to assume that everyone has the same capabilities as me.

I’ve been called out on it a few times.

“If I can do it, why can’t you?” I tend to think…

I got criticized for assuming that everyone can.

I’ve recently heard this statement in a podcast:

What if everybody tomorrow became a scientist or an engineer?…And don’t tell me people can’t do it, because they can. That’s just the tyranny of soft expectations, that’s just you looking down on somebody else. They can do it, they just need to be educated.

Naval Ravikant

I loved the term. The tyranny of soft expectations.

It described exactly what I hear when someone tells me to lower my expectations of people.

I think this is a very common practice in companies.

People expect others to have ‘certain capabilities’ and that they can’t get certain things done because they ‘lack experience’ or something similar.

While that’s not 100% false, I think that pretty much everyone is capable of pretty much everything, if they want it badly enough, and if they’re given the challenge/opportunity.

Maybe I’m optimistic to a fault. But I’d rather be that than the opposite.

Maybe I’m a believer in people to the point of delusion, but I’d rather be that than the opposite.

The same tyranny applies on younger people. My 14 year old brother can practically do anything that a 40 year old person can do (experience makes you better at some things, but it’s not a pre-requisite to getting things done).

I aspire to treat everyone around me as though they were infinitely capable.

Food for thought.