When American sports players try to trash talk their opponents, the opponents will sometimes retort with the word “scoreboard” along with pointing at the screen showing that they plainly have more points. This is to say, basically, “whatever bro, I’m winning”. It’s a cocky response, but it’s hard to argue with. I’ll try to keep this post not-cocky.
I think of this sometimes in the context of the EA ecosystem. Sometimes I am astounded by how disorganized someone might be, and because of that I might be tempted to think of them as fundamentally incompetent. But if I happen to notice that they’re sitting on a huge pile of impact, then I should be more humble. Something’s obviously working for them. And maybe their disorganization is linked to them being so impactful. Despite this, there’s an attitude I sometimes see in myself or others, which is to bring it up in a rather unhelpful or condescending way, which is especially apparent if someone is clearly doing something right.
The example of a disorganized person seems extremely clear to me. But can I still use this concept in a more difficult case? What if I have a strategic disagreement? Sometimes I might be tempted to tell someone that their strategy means that their apparent impact is illusory. But I think a really valuable skill is noticing when I kinda, you know, want that to be true, but it isn’t, and in fact the scoreboard simply shows just the opposite.
Scoreboard
Or: Let impact outcomes settle debates
When American sports players try to trash talk their opponents, the opponents will sometimes retort with the word “scoreboard” along with pointing at the screen showing that they plainly have more points. This is to say, basically, “whatever bro, I’m winning”. It’s a cocky response, but it’s hard to argue with. I’ll try to keep this post not-cocky.
I think of this sometimes in the context of the EA ecosystem. Sometimes I am astounded by how disorganized someone might be, and because of that I might be tempted to think of them as fundamentally incompetent. But if I happen to notice that they’re sitting on a huge pile of impact, then I should be more humble. Something’s obviously working for them. And maybe their disorganization is linked to them being so impactful. Despite this, there’s an attitude I sometimes see in myself or others, which is to bring it up in a rather unhelpful or condescending way, which is especially apparent if someone is clearly doing something right.
The example of a disorganized person seems extremely clear to me. But can I still use this concept in a more difficult case? What if I have a strategic disagreement? Sometimes I might be tempted to tell someone that their strategy means that their apparent impact is illusory. But I think a really valuable skill is noticing when I kinda, you know, want that to be true, but it isn’t, and in fact the scoreboard simply shows just the opposite.