You have to take it for what it is – a passing comment that’s based on a pretty random thought. That’s … what Twitter is. And it’s plenty fair to criticize that viewpoint, or I wouldn’t have bothered posting it. I certainly don’t post things on Twitter so that everyone can nod their head along and say “yep Jeff you’re right again boss excellent work keep it up”.
As I told people, I just don’t think about unions.. basically ever. Pretty much all I know about unions is based on the movie Norma Rae (which oddly enough a lot of millenials have never even seen, though it is quite famous and won academy awards).
I certainly read all the replies (well most of them) and there were some good points in there, stuff I hadn’t considered, even beyond “it doesn’t have to be about the money”. That is easily the most I have thought about unions in my entire life. So if we go back to the original goal…
That’s not really the goal, though, to completely change someone’s mind. In the ideal case:
- your positions on issues become more nuanced over time as you gain a greater understanding of the complexity involved and realize how many tradeoffs and exceptions and different ways to view the issue there are.
- you can effectively argue the “opposite” site of an issue, even if you don’t agree with it, to prove you understand it.
In the average political discussion, if you’ve added even one data point or narrative that gets to people think a little more about their position and appreciate the nuances of the situation better … that’s about the best you can ever do.
Changing people’s minds?
that takes decades. Often the whole world has to change around people before they’ll do that.
… I still don’t really agree that unions make much sense in tech as a whole, but I certainly appreciate the nuances a lot better. And I definitely appreciate that the whole union topic is highly charged and contentious, way more than I knew.
“Learning intent” doesn’t really make sense; you don’t know what you don’t know, pretty much by definition. But if you look at the platform as ..
Twitter is a place to share off the cuff, ephemeral thoughts that may or may not make sense
.. versus ..
Twitter is for peering deeply into the soul of individual people through certified statements that go on their permanent record
.. you’ll have a very different experience.