Reflection
Here are two things about me - one I’m good at and another where I’m just average.
I play guitar reasonably well - perhaps better than most. I am not great but I am more adept than most.
I am a long distance runner. As a result I am quite fit but I am not quick. I will almost always finish in the middle of the pack, at any distance.
As far as you know, these are reasonably accurate and straightforward self-evaluations.
But what if I am actually a terrible guitar player, but I say (and/or think) that I am pretty good? Typically, we would think of this as a negative type of pride: to overvalue yourself in front of others or to think that you are better than you are. Either way, we don’t tend to have a lot of empathy for people who are proud without cause.
On the other hand, what if I was a great runner, but only claimed to be average? We tend to respond to this as positive forms of humility: the “average” runner who completes a marathon in …
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