As we head into this election season in the U.S., political nuance is likely to continue to be absent. As I shared a few years ago, moderate viewpoints tend to squashed, as it’s much easier to pick an “us” and a “them” and just fight. That also leads to very few people that are willing to vote a ticket that isn’t completely straight.
A recent post from Seth Godin got into the idea of nuance when it comes to journalism. There are great uses of nuance at times, but nuance doesn’t lead to attention. If you want attention, you need to go to the edges where you’ll find many viewers but little truth. In Seth’s post, he describes the two angles for lazy tech journalists: explain how a new product will change the world, or explain how it’s a complete scam. The truth is almost always in the middle for any given product, but the middle isn’t as popular to write about. Seth concludes his post with:
“Nuance isn’t easy, but nuance is almost always correct.”
When it comes to writing, voting, or anything else with multiple angles, I encourage you to find the nuance. Don’t be scared about every new technology, and don’t determine your thoughts on a societal issue based entirely on which “side” you need to take. Every situation is different, and you owe it to yourself to spend time to find the nuance.
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