Category: culture

Busyness is laziness

Fabrizio7 Comments

As counter intuitive as it might sound, I find this Buddhist teaching very relevant to the World we live in today.

“I am busy” is a story we all tell ourselves and others, and it is a very convenient way to avoid facing what matters and the reality of everyday. We hide behind a wall of importance and hectic behaviour. And this is particularly serious, I believe, when “I am busy” is no longer a way to describe our current, temporary status, but a way to tell about who we are and how feel.

When you are too busy to honor your highest priorities – which are understanding your life, discovering your wisdom, and offering your heart – that is a sign that you’ve let something slip because of laziness.

Susan Piver, Start Here Now

Next time somebody is asking “how are you?”, avoid the “I am busy” trap and take a moment to reflect on how you actually feel and what is appropriate to share with the other (and how). That might start a very different conversation than the unsympathetic one we got used to. And it might also be a nice way to begin rethinking your priorities and what to dedicate time to from there on.

Putting into boxes

Fabrizio3 Comments

There’s a lot of power in categories. They help us make sense of the World around us, understand each other, feel safe in situations in which we normally would not, as well as feel unrest when we step into something that is listed in one category we are not comfortable with.

Yet we should never forget that categories are made up. They are not real, in the sense that they do not exist before we attach a meaning (both literal and figurative) to them.

This means mainly two things.

In approaching others, we should maintain our categories flexible. Both the ones in which we think we fit and the ones in which we think the other fits. We must be careful in taking all the background of a category with us when we enter a new situation. It might greatly limit our experience and not do the other justice.

And if we do not like the category in which we have been put, we should be aware that it  is possible to shift its meaning. Perhaps initially it will change for us only, and that would already be a great achievement. But if we are consistent enough with the new narrative and how we present it, if we gather a following, and if it sticks, in the long term, little by little, we might actually be successful at a much larger scale.

Nothing is fixed and forever, so let’s put categories back to their rightful place. Categories should work for us, they should not get us all worked up.

 

Back to the basics

Fabrizio2 Comments

A couple of old frameworks to help think about communication, at a moment when communication is everything and is greatly misunderstood.

First, the maxims of Grice.

Quality – Make your contribution one that is true.
Quantity – Make your contribution as informative as is required (no more).
Relevance – Make your contribution relevant, pertinent to the discussion.
Manner – Make your contribution clear, brief, orderly, avoid obscurity and ambiguity.

Then, the Buddhist four gates of speech.

Is what I have to say true?
Is what I have to say necessary?
Is what I am saying kind?
Is it the right time?

Writing, speaking, in general communicating without having these in mind generates weak and unaffecting communication.

Customer disservice

Fabrizio1 Comment

We are all lazy as customers, and somehow we forget this basic fact when we change our dress and become business people.

Hi Generic User

Thank you for contacting Support.

We appreciate your time and effort invested in contacting us.

It is unfortunate that you are facing issue with your product. Need not to worry we will surely try our best to resolve this issue.

Please provide us with the below information so that we could help you more appropriately regarding your issue:

  1. Was there any liquid/physical damage to the product?
  2. Have you ever dropped your product?
  3. Are facing issue from the day 1 of purchasing the product?

We really apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused. Please perform a factory reset on your product, please see below on how to perform it.

Please provide us clear pictures of your product and the video of the issue.

Please feel free to reach out to us if still issue persists.

Best Regards,

I have three problems with this way of making a connection with a customer.

Number 1, you have my name, you can use it. I have purchased from you, I am getting in touch about a specific order, you have all the details about my life as a customer (and perhaps some more). It’s quite pointless that the next time I scroll through my Facebook timeline I will see an offer from you “JUST FOR ME!!!”, if you are not personal when you can be.

Number 2, can I ask how many people tell you they have spilled liquid on their product, damaged it, or dropped it? And if they are honest and they do, what is your answer? Are you telling them that it is their fault the product does not work (and fail their honesty, losing them for good), or are you going to pretend nothing happened and still replace the product (and then why the question in the first place)?

Number 3, please do not make it feel as if by having an issue with your product I am being hired for a second job. Be sure that the tasks you ask me to perform are related to my request (I am not sure how useful taking a video can be for sound not coming from earphones) and are few.

I got this answer after only 14 minutes from my request of assistance. I imagine first response time has been dealt with. What about the rest?

A couple of alternatives.

Hi Fabrizio, thanks for reaching out.

I am sorry you can’t hear music coming from your headphones, when did this start? Also, can I ask you to perform a factory reset on them? We found this is helpful in some cases. To do this, follow the instructions at the end of this message.

If this does not help, we’ll arrange a replacement, as I see it’s been just two months from your purchase. We are proud of the quality of our products, but sometimes things do not go as planned. I apologise for this.

Be in touch soon!

Or

Hi Fabrizio, thanks for being in touch.

I am sorry you can’t hear music coming from your headphones. You bought them two months ago, and this should not happen.

I am not in a position to offer a replacement, unfortunately. We are striving to keep the cost of our products the lowest on the market, and this is why we are able to offer only 40 days of guarantee on earphones. We have found that customers, sometimes, are not as careful as you shared you’ve been, and by increasing the guarantee period, we might actually end up losing money. I am genuinely sorry for that.

What I can do, if you agree, is transfer a €10 credit on your account to use with your next purchase. No strings attached, it is valid forever, use it when you want it, and on whichever product you might be interested into.

I understand this is not the solution you were seeking, and I will appreciate if you would get back to me with an answer, so that I can proceed with crediting the money on your account.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

The worst thing that could happen

Fabrizio7 Comments

What is the worst thing that could happen?

I used to ask myself this question when I was younger, thinking of myself as a pessimist. Later on in life, I understood that it is actually a very stoic question to ask, and I have started sharing it also with people who seek my advice or are just kind enough to share their experience with me.

Fear should not stop us making the World a better place.

Most often, the difference between what we fear and what really is dangerous is immense. And so, what is the worst thing that could happen? is a great question to ask yourself when you start feeling some unrest in your body because you are in a situation that is not familiar to you. Or when you anticipate some crisis that might, or might not, come.

There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. I am not speaking with you in the Stoic strain but in my milder style. For it is our Stoic fashion to speak of all those things, which provoke cries and groans, as unimportant and beneath notice; but you and I must drop such great-sounding words, although, heaven knows, they are true enough. What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come.

Seneca, On Groundless Fear

Before the fear to speak up at the next meeting with senior managers stops you from sharing your idea or your concern, ask yourself what the worst thing that could happen is.

Before you avoid going to that place that you like, fearing to meet that unpleasant person, or to find yourself in an unpleasant situation, ask yourself what the worst thing that could happen is.

Before you surrender giving that speech, or sending that email, or making that call, or showing up, because sure, things could go wrong, ask yourself what the worst thing that could happen is.

When you give a shape, a smell, a contour, a name to what you fear, you will find you are unstoppable.