Labels
Labels, serving as terminology, are a necessary tool for discourse. On the other hand, they are a dangerous tool for thinking.
Labels immediately stop thought.
Once we attach a label to someone, we stop perceiving that someone's nuances and start perceiving what further reinforces the label in our minds.
I don't mean that people do this intentionally or in a mean-spirited fashion. It's simply a cognitive bias called confirmation bias, and no one is immune to it.
Identity
More often than we'd like to admit, we decide what to do by asking ourselves “what would someone like me do?”.
If we identify ourselves with some group or some set of beliefs, we are beholden to act in accordance with that group's expectations.
Going against one's self-identity is immediately painful, as anyone can attest. Therefore, those who shape the self-image and the ideal behavior of some substantial group of people wield immense power.
Authority
Finally, the most common shortcut of thought is deferring it to someone else who has supposedly already done the thinking.
Authority is often a necessary tool of coordination. Having someone acting as the leader often helps the outcome for the whole group.
But leadership is not an inherent attribute; it is the group that allows the leader to assume a position of authority.
A leader must be held accountable to the group that is allowing them to hold that role. Leadership is servitude; it is neither a bestowed reward nor a self-aggrandizing ego boost.
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Hi, I'm Victor -- a Brazilian computer engineer at Microsoft with 7+ years of industry experience architecting and building highly polished software. I enjoy deep technical dives, hard problems, and working across all layers of the stack. My work centers on robust, cloud-based, distributed systems and web-based applications that serve millions of users.
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