Once we know something, it becomes hard to imagine what it feels like not to know it.
More quotesSelf-description, translated:
“Maverick” means I would like credit for disagreeing before you know what I disagreed with.
“Straight talker” means complaints about my manners will be treated as proof of courage.
“Thought leader” means I have completed the nomination form personally.
The words are available to everybody, including timid conformists, rambling bores and people whose most radical act was choosing a different font. That is why they communicate ambition more reliably than character.
Evidence is less cooperative. “We changed the plan after the trial contradicted us” describes an event. “We answer 86 per cent of complaints within an hour” permits somebody to check. “Customer-obsessed” permits a decal.
Third-party praise can be just as empty. A testimonial saying “brilliant, innovative, disruptive” may reveal a friendly client and a thesaurus. One saying “they refunded the fee before I asked” contains behaviour, which is harder to fake elegantly and easier to dispute specifically.
A biography arrives for editing. It includes sceptic, provocateur and unconventional thinker in the first four lines. Beneath them are two concrete decisions, one popular and one unpopular.
The adjectives are deleted. The author puts “sceptic” back, then removes it again, then emails to ask whether “independent-minded” is any better.