I doubt you’ll ever “have to,” in the sense of being forced to by circumstances. That’s what I meant by it being your choice to make.
Plenty of people live their entire lives optimizing for minimizing social friction at the cost of expressing their thoughts clearly and unambiguously… presenting as “nice but clueless,” in other words. “Going along to get along” is another way to say it. I suspect that as long as you make the choice to do so, you will be able to find situations that allow you to, just like they do.
That’s what value judgments are for, after all: they let you construct a preference order among possible states of the world, and therefore drive the choices you make. The decision to present as “nice but clueless” will affect the sorts of acquaintances you make, the sorts of communities you join, the sorts of organizations you work for, and so forth.
To put it differently: like it or not, you actually have a lot of power over your own future.
So the question is, how confident are you in the preference order you’re defending?
If you’re confident in it, then great… you’re choosing the world you want, which is as it should be, and I wish you joy of it.
OTOH, if you are uncertain, then I suggest that you might do better to explore the roots of that uncertainty yourself, rather than wait for events to somehow force you to change your mind.
I’m not sure, really. I’m open to changing my mind. I may have to, after all.
I doubt you’ll ever “have to,” in the sense of being forced to by circumstances. That’s what I meant by it being your choice to make.
Plenty of people live their entire lives optimizing for minimizing social friction at the cost of expressing their thoughts clearly and unambiguously… presenting as “nice but clueless,” in other words. “Going along to get along” is another way to say it. I suspect that as long as you make the choice to do so, you will be able to find situations that allow you to, just like they do.
That’s what value judgments are for, after all: they let you construct a preference order among possible states of the world, and therefore drive the choices you make. The decision to present as “nice but clueless” will affect the sorts of acquaintances you make, the sorts of communities you join, the sorts of organizations you work for, and so forth.
To put it differently: like it or not, you actually have a lot of power over your own future.
So the question is, how confident are you in the preference order you’re defending?
If you’re confident in it, then great… you’re choosing the world you want, which is as it should be, and I wish you joy of it.
OTOH, if you are uncertain, then I suggest that you might do better to explore the roots of that uncertainty yourself, rather than wait for events to somehow force you to change your mind.