The voice of reason takes shortcuts in the name of practicality and efficiency, and it tends to accept that high-cost, low-impact problems can be deprioritized. In the world of business, this flaw is easiest to represent as a cut line: everything above the line gets funded, with people and a budget, to be worked on, and everything below the line gets deferred to next quarter’s planning process. On the individual level, it’s encapsulated in the simple advice I hear all the time to focus on maximizing your strengths rather than working on your weaknesses. In a constrained and highly competitive
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