This is from an email I wrote…
“I explained why their idea would never work and my logic was sound. I mean what I was saying was inarguable but they could not go with my idea because it was completely counter what everyone at the table had been educated to believe.
I was older. Most of the people were late 20’s early 30’s and they all had the same education. As it turns out they were taught to do things that are wholly ineffectual but no one wants to call the game (yet) – come to terms with the fact their methods don’t work even if they learned them in college (even prestigious college) and so further into the ditch we go.
That was very strange because the guts around the table KNEW I was right but the HEADS could not move in any direction but the wrong one they’d been taught because if they did guess what?
It would cost them their careers. Yep, in order to move ahead in this game at this point in time you have to do the wrong thing because the wrong thing is defensible. If it blows up the person can just point to the manual and say, “I followed this exactly” and their ass will be covered. That nothing gets done is irrelevant and if you’re me you just look on in horror and amazement…”
What I could perceive in this room was not learned in a book. I did fervently speak up in this situation and I could tell that what I said was understood… intuitively.
It was understood by every gut in the room but their was a split between the gut and the brain and it was intense. This was the part of the meeting where everyone was supposed to agree. I had thrown down the gauntlet and no one wanted to take me on because deep inside they knew I was right but it didn’t matter.
There was a hush in the room and then the leader of the group took back control, making a brilliantly pc statement – “In consideration of my input, how about we go with this modified version of wrong thing?”
All hands said aye and I didn’t bother to vote because come on. Majority rule.
Point here, is my thinking or my intelligence occurs down low. It’s down in the muck where people don’t like to look. It’s the dark spot in the otherwise shiny apple.
Can anyone relate?
Ok I totally get what you’re saying. My experience was with the medical establishment. I couldn’t get them to listen to me. Guess what I had? Mono! That’s all! It took a year to find this out, if I hadn’t fought them I don’t know what kind of shape I would be in by now.
My point is that because they were trained medical professionals and I wasn’t, I couldn’t possibly know how I felt or what I was talking about.
My kind of intelligence is observational cause and effect. I can hold something in my hands and figure out how it works. I put part of my company’s copier back together when the engineers couldn’t even though I know nothing about putting copiers together.
Hi Elsa,
Yes, people like us probably need to be self – employed types who are less at the mercy of the prevailing herd mentality than are people who have to play a lot of office politics. I always lose at office politics because that thing in your gut is called your conscience, and it’s one of the most real experiences we have of God. People who can shut God out of their life that easily are not to be trusted.
Love your website, Shawn
You can group a primitive tribesman and a Rhodes scholar together, and sooner or later they will both teach the other something. Not good to underestimate the wisdom of experience.
I relate to you. As a designer, I go by “feel.” All my type placements, navigation systems, and layouts are all done by “feel,” that is, if my fear does not get to me first.
I am uncomfortable making various iterations of my work because I believe my first concept is always right – and this is very different from the process I’ve been taught and I’ve been reading in design. We were taught to make thumbnails and think about our ideas – mesh logical with creative… That’s just not how I work.
I’m not sure what to attribute this “brain” of mine too. I have a 5th house Mars in Leo conjuncting Jupiter, which is a sign of a creative person (this is also my ruling planet). But since I feel that my design is highly intuitive, I may attribute it to my 12th house. who knows?
I have Mercury in Cancer in the 8th, square Uranus in the 11th. I tend to make big leaps in thinking by way of intuition. Boy, has it been an issue at work. Here I am bringing a great brainstorm, but the group I work with is rather pedantic. I mean, there’s a place for it in the world, but when it’s decision-makers, it can be bad for the whole.
More than once, I’ve run into former colleagues years after I’ve left that job, and what they relate is exactly what I predicted if they continued on that course.
Hmm… so to take a crack at this – deep, intuitive thinking (Merc in Cancer in 8th) that disrupts the group (sq. Uranus in the 11th)? Maybe self-employment is my best hope, too!
I understand… Sun = SA/PL = VE/MA… Mars-Mercury, Mercury-Pluto, Venus-Pluto, Venus-Mars.
You’d think they would listen.
I’ve gone on strike… I no longer give advice.
“There was a hush in the room and then the leader of the group took back control, making a brilliantly pc statement…” LOL, the story of my life;D
Sun in the 8th and Scorpio on the MC and 11th cusp;)
Huh. If there were more posts on this subject, I missed them. Initially, I was offended at the ’20-something’ reference (my problem, not yours). When you hear something like that in a work setting, it’s usually someone from another generation seeking to elevate themselves above another purely on the basis of age and ‘this-is-how-it’s-been-done’.
But yeah, I agree with you. Except not. Some people get fabulous ideas from their gut. I don’t. I get them in surprising sunbursts of intuition. Or insane common sense. For example, when my ex-company used to ask the employees for their ideas on saving money, I thought, ‘Hey, how about cutting our office supplies budget and only ordering what we really need?’ I routinely saved $300 a month just by being practical about what I ordered and surely other departments could do the same. Alas, no one was down with that idea, because the ex-company believed that the only good way to save money was to do it in massive tens-of-thousands of dollars ways. Silly me.
Also, though, I found covering-your-ass to be a very handy thing. I was a sort of crux person for my regional division, and since any one of my ‘superiors’ (everyone thought they were that) could randomly claim ‘Gasp! You didn’t tell me that/send that to me/notify me of the ice cream truck!’ I documented everything I did and left massive paper trails. Something to be said for that, and it keeps your job (except I got laid off, hahah…due to my lowly position, I wasn’t deemed important).
My point? No idea…this got long. There might be a POV in there somewhere.
Jeez. I stumbled on this, the memory is vivid to this day!
I also remember back when I used to email people, sharing in this way. People (including me) are so much busier now.
Related:
https://elsaelsa.com/astrology/about-8th-house-brains-and-20-year-olds-and-shifts-in-the-collective-or-the-group-mind/