What we call “getting perspective” on a situation is basically a name for updating your baseline expectation for how reality “ought to be” at the present moment.
I agree that resetting your baseline is often important if you think that your lack of shoes is a soul-crushing awfulness. This quote is mainly arguing against the attitude that says “you have feet therefore your shoe problem is a non-problem, don’t even bother feeling bad or working on it”. It’s comparatively very minor, but it should be fixed just like any other problem. This quote is arguing against resetting your baseline to the point where minor problems get no attention at all.
This quote is mainly arguing against the attitude that says “you have feet therefore your shoe problem is a non-problem, don’t even bother feeling bad or working on it”.
That may be, but the actual context of the quote it’s arguing with is quite different, on a couple of fronts.
Harold Abbott, the author of the original 1934 couplet (“I had the blues because I had no shoes / Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet”), wrote it to memorialize an encounter with a happy legless man, at a time when Abbott was dead broke and depressed. (Abbott was not actually lacking in shoes, nor the man only lacking in feet, but apparently in those days people took their couplet-writing seriously. ;-) )
Thing is, at the time he encountered the legless man (who smiled and said good morning), Abbott was actually walking to the bank in order to borrow money to go to Kansas City to look for a job. And not only did he not stop walking to the bank after the encounter, he decided to ask for twice as much money as he had originally intended to borrow. He had in fact raised his sights, rather than lowering them.
That is, the full story is not anything like, “other people have worse problems so STFU”, but rather that your attitude is a choice, and there are probably people who have much worse circumstances than you, who nonetheless have a better attitude. Abbott wrote the couplet to put on his bathroom mirror, as an ongoing reminder to have a positive outlook and persist in the face of adversity.
Which is quite a different message than what Noah Brand’s snarky quip would imply.
the full story is not anything like, “other people have worse problems so STFU”
I think the problem that people are having with the quote is that it doesn’t actually contain the full story, and when it is repeated outside that context, the meaning they get from parsing the words is “other people have worse problems so STFU”, and it’s not a good idea to go around repeating it if people are going to predictably lack the context and misinterpret it.
I guess I didn’t quote the original article, and he was saying “I am pointing out this problem that is probably not as big or painful as this other problem, but can we please acknowledge its existence also?” And, as often happens with social issues, he was trying to preempt the inevitable “why would we care? we have it worse!” response.
I definitely agree that attitude is a choice! I wasn’t quite aware of the original quote, but I would put it down as an instrumental rationality quote as well. 8) But it sounds like his shoelessness was a symptom of bigger/different problems?
I consider Noah Brand’s quote a rationality quote because it’s a reminder that problems require real solutions. Changing your attitude to be positive is useful, but changing your attitude to accept that something that sucks will continue to suck indefinitely is not the answer.
it sounds like his shoelessness was a symptom of bigger/different problems?
Yes, his business (a grocery store) had just failed, taking his entire life savings with it. (And the story doesn’t actually say he was shoeless, anyway, just that the rhyme was something he posted on his mirror as a reminder of the encounter.)
I agree that resetting your baseline is often important if you think that your lack of shoes is a soul-crushing awfulness. This quote is mainly arguing against the attitude that says “you have feet therefore your shoe problem is a non-problem, don’t even bother feeling bad or working on it”. It’s comparatively very minor, but it should be fixed just like any other problem. This quote is arguing against resetting your baseline to the point where minor problems get no attention at all.
That may be, but the actual context of the quote it’s arguing with is quite different, on a couple of fronts.
Harold Abbott, the author of the original 1934 couplet (“I had the blues because I had no shoes / Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet”), wrote it to memorialize an encounter with a happy legless man, at a time when Abbott was dead broke and depressed. (Abbott was not actually lacking in shoes, nor the man only lacking in feet, but apparently in those days people took their couplet-writing seriously. ;-) )
Thing is, at the time he encountered the legless man (who smiled and said good morning), Abbott was actually walking to the bank in order to borrow money to go to Kansas City to look for a job. And not only did he not stop walking to the bank after the encounter, he decided to ask for twice as much money as he had originally intended to borrow. He had in fact raised his sights, rather than lowering them.
That is, the full story is not anything like, “other people have worse problems so STFU”, but rather that your attitude is a choice, and there are probably people who have much worse circumstances than you, who nonetheless have a better attitude. Abbott wrote the couplet to put on his bathroom mirror, as an ongoing reminder to have a positive outlook and persist in the face of adversity.
Which is quite a different message than what Noah Brand’s snarky quip would imply.
I think the problem that people are having with the quote is that it doesn’t actually contain the full story, and when it is repeated outside that context, the meaning they get from parsing the words is “other people have worse problems so STFU”, and it’s not a good idea to go around repeating it if people are going to predictably lack the context and misinterpret it.
I guess I didn’t quote the original article, and he was saying “I am pointing out this problem that is probably not as big or painful as this other problem, but can we please acknowledge its existence also?” And, as often happens with social issues, he was trying to preempt the inevitable “why would we care? we have it worse!” response.
I definitely agree that attitude is a choice! I wasn’t quite aware of the original quote, but I would put it down as an instrumental rationality quote as well. 8) But it sounds like his shoelessness was a symptom of bigger/different problems?
I consider Noah Brand’s quote a rationality quote because it’s a reminder that problems require real solutions. Changing your attitude to be positive is useful, but changing your attitude to accept that something that sucks will continue to suck indefinitely is not the answer.
Yes, his business (a grocery store) had just failed, taking his entire life savings with it. (And the story doesn’t actually say he was shoeless, anyway, just that the rhyme was something he posted on his mirror as a reminder of the encounter.)