Self-censorship
“We are so used to disguising ourselves from others that we often end up by disguising ourselves from ourselves.”
David Brooks • How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
“So many of these thoughts and feelings live in our heads, which is not a great place for them to live. They need to come out somewhere. Once you can put them somewhere, you feel like you’re free.”
Emma Watson
Anxiety is the enemy of empathy. Fear makes us egocentric; egocentric makes us blind. An amygdala/prefrontal-cortex two-step that narrows the search parameters of the pattern recognition system. Pretty soon, as anxiety climbs too high, we lose our ability to find one another.
Steven Kotler • Last Tango in Cyberspace: A Novel
The world is filled with polite, shy, inscrutable, unintelligible, tight lipped, superficial, dishonest and also honest people who for one reason or another do not say what they think. The search for freedom of speech has barely begun. Many do not reveal their thoughts because they are not sure what they think. Many would be braver in their speech
... See moreANXIETY. The number two reason people don’t see others is that they have so much noise in their own heads, they can’t hear what’s going on in other heads. How am I coming across? I don’t think this person really likes me. What am I going to say next to appear clever? Fear is the enemy of open communication.
David Brooks • How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
What people present to the world is a tiny fraction of what’s going on inside their head.
Morgan Housel • How People Think
A problem people have is that they think: “How dare you say what’s on your mind, when I can’t”
We judge ourselves by our intentions, not by our actions. We judge others by their actions, not their intentions