Good People and Stupid People
In this world, there are only good people and stupid people. I know this because I’m both one of the stupid ones and one of the good ones.
Why stupid? Almost nothing is done with bad intentions. Normally “bad“ things are done to justify something else that could or would be considered good or some fundamental misunderstanding of the world. We’re all the hero’s in our own story. And, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
We also aren’t very good and swallowing how we were being dumb in the past. No deal is ever done with either party going in saying “this is definitely going to go wrong in this way“. Typically when things go bad for the other person, we assume they know what they’re doing. Most of the time though, we’re just being dumb, shooting from the hip and hoping for the best.
The best deals are done when both people know the upside and risk, but often times when we say someone was bad we mean that they were hiding risk somewhere we couldn’t see - we feel shocked when that risk comes forward, but people have lots of reasons for hiding risk, and it’s often internal vs external (not outwardly trying to hurt people).
I think about this a lot when considering any deals, relationships etc etc I’m putting in my life. There are only good and stupid people, and it’s better to catch when people are being dumb upfront.