Be unreasonable

Yesterday I was searching for YouTube videos on a particular obscure topic and started watching one video that soon turned out to be a nonsense. However, at the very beginning there were two quotes that resonated with me:

All progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw


A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.
Pall Romer


The title of my previous post was “Do something you are not ready for”. The title of today’s post is urging you to be unreasonable.

Being unreasonable and doing unexpected things – these are the characteristics of a troublemaker, right? In my work experience, I had been demonstrated over and over again that “troublemakers” are marginalized, penalized and never promoted. In fact, they are reported to HR, complained about to the boss, and called “outliers”. At their jobs, the troublemakers are so “out" of the system/main body that usually they do end up officially out of it – they are fired, the first to be laid off, or forced to quit.

What is wrong with not being unreasonable? Plenty. The opposite of unreasonable is reasonable – someone who does not ask questions and glides with the flow without any resistance. The opposite of a troublemaker is someone who would never tell you that things could be improved on. The opposite of a troublemaker agrees with you, and supposedly, thinks like you.

Years ago, growing in a communist country, my five-year old nephew was watching the TV streaming of the communist party congress (at this time, the only party in existence). He was entranced by the behavior of the men on the screen. Occasionally, the silent and seemingly somnolent dark-suited men would get up as one on their feet, and start applauding and shouting the same words over and over again. Filled with curiosity, the boy asked his grandma who these people were. The communist party, the answer was. What is the communist party, the little guy persisted. His grandma, a smart mathematician, found a brief and simple description, “the communist party is a group of people who all think alike”.

Do you surround yourself with troublemakers or think-alike conformists?

Who are you - a troublemaker or a conformist?

Do not wait for a crisis to trigger the force within you – start being unreasonable today.