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Issue 5 > Why indifference is as important as passion.

Why indifference is as important as passion.

Bob Sutton with more about 'not being an asshole'.

I've enjoyed the thoughtful reactions, additions, and suggested edits to my 'Ten things I believe.'

[The expanded 'Fifteen things I believe' is in Issue 2.]

I posted without explaining why I believed them, which led to people come up with creative explanations that never occurred to me.

In particular, Ann Michael over at Manage to Change' had some great ideas about why 'indifference is as important as passion'.

Ann suggested:

Passion can make you too close to something.

We all need to be able to step back and disconnect. In order to see flaws in the plan, respect the input of others, and maintain an open mind, a little indifference can go a long way.

One other thing, too many disrespectful actions are explained away by passion. It's as if passion can be the get-out-of-being-called-a-jerk-free card.

Passion is not a license to steam roll everyone in your path!

I think Ann's ideas are great, as I said, ideas that never occurred to me.

For the record, here are my original two reasons, but some of you likely have others as well.

The first reason stems from human cognitive limits. As we all know, and as modern psychology has shown in gory detail, human beings can do a limited number of things at once, and even the best 'multi-taskers' in the world are doomed to fail if they try to do too many things at once.

So if you try to put all your emotional and physical effort into everything you do, you will end do everything badly. Indifference is a key survival skill as there are some things you may need to do, but are so unimportant (or so badly done, like Stanford's sexual harassment training) that not caring as you travel through them is the best answer.

And indifference can also help you sidestep things that seem important, but really aren't, allowing you to focus on the few things that really matter.

I talk a lot about the second reason in 'The No Asshole Rule'. A hallmark of strong organizational cultures and effective work teams—and effective leaders and other organization members—is that they devote great passion and great emotional energy to what they do.

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