Monday, August 9, 2010

Humility: A Good Trait?

Depends on who you ask.

Here's two fairly recent posts:

So, one says being humble is a good thing. You'll ask more questions and learn more from your peers. Plus there's several talks and studies about how cooperative work is better and how ideas mixing together produces progress and specializations. Great!

On the other hand, being "likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity" doesn't sound like positive traits.

Perhaps the real key is the line between being humble and knowing when to step down or submit and being self-depreciating. One handles knowing when to give in, the other is the continual action of bashing yourself internally.

I probably fall into the latter category since there have been so many times in my life where I was absolutely sure of something only to find out it was totally wrong. As a result I tend to also question myself and check other sources and try to think of the other side of the argument. It really helps make sure I don't make stupid mistakes, but at the same time it really takes a toll on my ability to be proactive sometimes. As a weird result, any action I do take tends to feel fairly self-assured, even when they turn out to still be wrong.

Hm.

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