WTF is he doing?!

I’ve never been too stressed about writing anything, really. Having said that, this is also much more for my own benefit, but it should definitely be interesting to anyone who knows me. I’m by no means handing out life advice here. This is to help me. Without sounding like I’m bragging too much, I think my thoughts are carefully considered and well defined. So here’s the first!

What has made me so happy recently? Many things, but the one I’d like to concentrate on right now is the notion of pre-conceived ideas and values. It’s absolutely useless to try and pretend that “Oh no! I don’t do that.” It’s pure human nature and cannot be avoided. As a graphic designer, we somewhat rely on this. Why make a continue button red? It denotes “Stop!” for obvious reasons. This is why they are very often coloured green instead.

Specifically, what I want to mention is that these values are what define us, and that we’ve built them up over a lifetime. They are so much stronger than we realise. They are based on our cultural perception, intrinsic value system and a lot more. They certainly don’t change overnight. I’m not gonna suddenly start thinking, “Hmmm…murdering someone I don’t like might be fine.”

So what use is knowing that? I already know this! Well, the useful part is realising that no-one is exactly like you. Maybe the person who flashed me with  his brights on the highway has never considered that his behaviour could be considered rude or dangerous. Maybe his parents never explained that to him, because they died from a hi-jacking when he was 4 years old. He wants to spend as little time as possible on the road, to minimise risk of that horrible event repeating itself. Imagine just how horrible his life might have been up to this stage?

Or you can get really angry, endanger your own life and his, and swear repeatedly at him. How would it matter if you mistakenly believed that his life might have been absolutely shit up to this point? Not only would it make you feel better and more compassionate, but spreading joy by, for example, moving over and letting him pass, hardly decreases the wealth of happiness in the world.

Practically, it’s about realising that your preconceived ideas aren’t necessarily correct. His wife might be in labour, and he might donate millions to various charities every year, but here you are, labelling him a complete dick.

So let’s spread joy in the world by making our own lives better and more palatable. How can that be wrong?