DIPLOMATIC HEAT, AND HOW TO MANAGE IT

There is a hidden concept or a mechanic, if you will when it comes to dealing with large groups of people.

Every action you take costs a degree of social currency, some more than others. However, the way that currency works, seems that it functions less as a currency as we know it but more as a steam pressure or heat build-up. You might have seen the effects of these in your work or on the news. When a person is seen doing anything too many times or just taking too many actions, they will draw the ire of the people regardless if it is good or bad.

Bill Gates and Elon Musk in the past fell into the same trap, that if we just do good things people will like us. That is simply not the case. People and the news will find a way to interpret what a person is doing most negatively. It is just a way of our social nature to balance itself, after all, if it was a linear transaction, we would have the same people stuck in the same positions, and it would all be very simple, however, as we all know, human interactions on a large scale is anything but simple.

This happens on a smaller scale as well. Think about kids in the family, whether the news is good or bad, if there is a constant stream of events, it tends to be bothersome, so unless those are consistently objectively good, it begins to bother people. On a large scale, there are always people ready to interpret what you are doing in the worst way possible. Elon Musk tries to take us to the stars, dozens of news pundits slam him for not feeding the poor. Bill Gates tries to feed the poor and prevent epidemics, but dozens of news pundits slam him for not tackling bigger projects for humanity.

So, what is the solution when you have garnered too much heat? I never had that in real life but from my mentors who did, one way or the other, the solution has always been the same. Subtlety.

Go dark for a bit, lay low, and let the dust settle. Keep doing your work but keep it subtle and never talk about it. One way that the young business people garner heat, even if they are careful, is through some “joking remarks.”

In today’s world with the “me too” movement, this has been made even more clear which I find most educational for humanity.

Yes, it is fun to joke around in a serious situation. Yes, people should not be offended because you said something that can be made sexual out of context. However, those things garner heat.

In conclusion, I would like to – very strongly – reiterate and take to the logical extreme the immortal words of Plato:

 “A wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool speaks because he has to say something.”