[Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: Popper's Paradox

The paradox of tolerance is a theory first described in 1945 by Karl Popper. His idea is that if you're tolerant of intolerance, the intolerance will eventually overtake the tolerance leading to less tolerance. To keep a tolerant society you'll need to be intolerant of intolerance. It's a paradox, because to keep the thing you want to have, you have to become the thing you don't want to be. It's a paradoxical, but logical too.

Steve Jobs famously told Jony Ive to say "no" more often. Jobs said: "Focusing is about saying no." To keep things simple, to keep focused, you can't only concentrate on one subject — you also have to spend time and energy keeping all the distractions out.

I had a chat with a friend where I admitted to finding it hard to be strict with people. Sometimes I'm jealous of managers who can show frustration, or even anger, without feeling sorry for the person they're dealing with. They say "it's just business," and don't care how bad it makes the other person feel. I see the efficiency in that, and giving honest feedback is important, but I realize it's hard for me. I'd rather lead by example, focus on the positive, and hope I don't have to spell out what went wrong. That probably makes me a nice boss to work for, but it isn't always productive.

The danger is that you're being too tolerant of intolerance, and, as Popper realized in 1945, that's dangerous. 

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Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten is een serial internet entrepreneur en is oprichter en eigenaar van The Next Web, een techmediabedrijf dat zich focust op Generation T; de generatie met een groeiende interesse in technologie. Voor The Next Web schrijft Boris wekelijks een blog die tevens wordt gepubliceerd op Marketing Report.

@Boris

Lees ook:

12-10-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: Sit on the ledge and enjoy the view
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21-09-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: Impatient patience
14-09-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: People
07-09-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: The hard part about decisions
31-08-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: Why are you picking up your phone?
24-08-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: How many steps until the end of the world?
20-08-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: What is your story?
23-07-2018: [Column] Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten: Stop talking about failure

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