Wishy Washy

I’m scrolling through twitter and a global times opinion piece with headline “US pullout of Shanghai consulate staff reveals who the world’s biggest Karen is”. I don’t read he post but take a screen shot and send to a friend. I send it to point out how divisive media in China is getting and also comment that US media (Fox anyway) is also divisive. Then I realize I am falling into the no classic social media trick – reacting to the reactionary. And I admit that there are times when I look at Twitter just to find the tweets I can take offense at; like checking CNN during the Trump presidency. My nature, however, embraces diverse opinions.

I am thinking about this in a work and a social context. At work we mostly map diversity to reductive of race, gender, and orientation and In China just gender. Certainly, these are important aspects of diversity but it’s not where my passion is. I take it as a given that our workforce should mirror society and need to recruit broadly and compensate for institutional bias. This is baseline, must do. What excites me and I focus on is diversity of ideas and diversity on how work gets done. When I encounter sameness, I often feel bored or imposed or constrained. In the engineering work I do this if often the case. And because I am an engineer people inside and outside of work often assume I am less than open minded.

Early in my career I was developing a tape management system since the vendor did not have one for the mainframe operating system I was working on. That got me some visibility inside the company and with the vendor which flattered me (in hindsight, it wasn’t that flattering). I remember being in a room with a few managers chit chatting before a meeting started. One asked for my opinion on something. I forget on what. But I gave the opinion. And then I made the case for another opinion. The manager asked me, “well, which one” and I said I could argue either side. He frowned and said that’s wishy washy. I said I’m a wishy washy kind of guy. He did not that that was a good character.

But I embrace my wishy washy-ness. It doesn’t mean I can make decisive decisions. I do. All day long. It does mean I can see the reasons for others point of view and not very judgmental about them unless I’m force to adopt their point of view.

When I’m at my best, I’m doing the same with social issues. For the Shanghai lockdown I’m trying to read and listen to multiple perspectives and not be a headline underliner. I try to stay open that I don’t know everything and that there is nuance. Same for Covid. Same for even Trump. But those headlines sure are enticing.