What if Irony is Judging Others for Lacking Empathy?
May we ask
whether we desire
being
and creating with someone
or giving to
and receiving from them.
The more we want to give to,
or receive from someone,
the harder it can become
to be
or to create with them.
Being
or creating with someone
requires being present,
without expectation,
suspending our need
to fulfill a need,
and instead
letting emergence guide us
through uncertainty.
There is a “self” we think
we should be.
There is a “self” others say
we should be.
There is a a “self” we think
we are.
There is a “self” others think
we are.
All of them blinds us
to the “self”
we actually are
or the “self”
we can be.
Manipulation
involves the desire
to move someone
or something
to a place or state
the manipulator expects.
This is not to judge manipulation
as good/bad or right/wrong.
Through mutual agreement
& rationalization,
one can differentiate between
transparent
vs. surreptitious,
well-intended
vs. ill-intended,
manipulation.
A magic show
can be thought of as
transparent manipulation.
Feeding kids hidden vegetables
can be thought of
as well-intended manipulation.
But manipulation stands
in some sense,
opposite of creation,
because creation
involves the desire
to let emerge
a place or product
the creator did not expect.
A common inner conflict revolves around these two thoughts:
It may seem like these two thoughts cannot be thought by the same person.
Yet they are often thought by the same person at the same time.
That’s why it is an inner conflict.
Our inner conflict often takes the form of a paradox.
When laid out logically, paradoxes will not make sense.
By connecting what may seem like contradictory perspectives through empathy,
we can give birth to what we call creativity.
It is through such act of creation,
that paradoxes dissolve itself,
leaving behind a sense of clarity and understanding.
Designers have worked with resistance since the dawn of time.
The first caveman who drew on cave walls
were met with resistance from those walls
and leveraged it as the very means through which they created.
Whenever someone behaves in ways we interpret as “resistance,”
all it means is we’re struggling to create.
What human interaction designers do with resistance
is leverage it as the very means through which we create.
Until we learn this art,
we’ll feel nothing but frustration & resentment
in our attempt to bring about innovation in our interactions & organizations.
Guess what lies at the heart of this art?
Our willingness & ability to realize our empathy.