If Everyone Else is Such an Idiot, How Come You're Not Rich?

Megan McArdle making a great point, writing for The Atlantic:

“If you see a person — or a company — doing something that seems completely and inexplicably boneheaded, then it’s unwise to assume that the reason must be that everyone but you is a complete idiot who is blind to fairly trivial insights such as ”people desire inexpensive and conveniently available movie services, and will resist having those services made more expensive, or less convenient“. While it’s certainly true that people do idiotic things, it’s also true that a lot of those ‘idiotic’ things turn out to have perfectly reasonable explanations.”

Everyone has their reasons — and everyone else has a reason for why those reasons are dumb. In leadership, as in writing, it’s important to remember the latter, and recognize the patent absurdity of the former.