Rationale

One of my hobbies is reading.

When I was younger, I couldn’t stand reading—I’d rather be out and about doing something with people. These days, I prefer to lose myself in my thoughts with a book. I guess that’s just part of how some of us grow older. What’s certain is that you always learn something from books; no matter how bad a book is, there’s always something good you can take away from it. Then again, I don’t even remember the book I’ve read, but certain things stick with me.

The quote of the month—and perhaps of the year—from one of the last books I read, which will resonate in my thoughts for a long time to come, is the following:

“Human beings aren’t rational; they rationalize.”

Think about it carefully!

It defines in seven words the human stupidity we see in our daily lives, applied to every context you can imagine—from the macro level, such as corporations, down to friendships.

On the macro level, with the crass rhetoric of presidents and ministers used to defend their personal interests or those of small groups. Here I include those individuals (usually men) who come across as extremely arrogant, justifying their actions—whether locally, to rezone land in the name of progress, or even internationally, as unfortunately we see these days where countries go to war or launch invasions for no reason at all under the slogan of defending democracy and the welfare state. This is rationalizing your actions by seeking a narrative that sells to the gullible masses, when the reality is that the only thing that matters is economic interests for the well-being of a select few.

It also perfectly sums up corporate idiocy. Here, I have a list of textbook CEO phrases that give me goosebumps every time I hear them: “we do it because we have to grow,” or the one I “cannot”: “we do it to be/stay number one.”

Here, “rationalization” means speaking in corporate jargon to sound important—if possible, throwing in a few buzzwords—when in reality, companies are justifying decisions based on individual interests (e.g., the CEO’s bonus if he hits X targets, maximizing the short-term stock price if you’re on the board…), or the incompetence of managers (I have no idea what to say, so I make it sound like I have a corporate strategy).

The phrase “to be/remain number one” particularly repels me. I believe that when I hear a leader say this kind of thing, that leader loses my respect. And they lose my respect because those kinds of phrases are fleeting. No company has ever been number one continuously. There are always ups and downs, and if you manage to reach the top, it’s only for a relatively short time.

If your company’s purpose is a number that represents a biased comparison of its current state—based on momentary KPIs—it means you have no idea where you’re headed. As a leader in a company, you don’t have to do things just to be number one; in my opinion, you don’t even have to do it just to deliver results. Results—or the position you’re in—are just that: results; a consequence of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, because the purpose behind what you do and how you do it (the strategy) leads you to those results.

I always picture a great historical entrepreneur like Christopher Columbus pitching his idea to the Spanish monarchs to justify his crusade—making the corporate pitch and rationalizing his narrative. “Trust me, if we go in that direction, we will make money”

On an individual level, we also rationalize our decisions after the fact, even if deep down they don’t make sense. They only make the sense we want to justify, so we don’t have to see what really matters about them.

We see this in our day-to-day lives, with friends, or coworkers. “I’m going on vacation, because otherwise, what are you doing here all year?” And even if they have to take out a loan, they’ll do it to justify that they have to go on vacation.

I know I sound arrogant when I question certain human behaviors, but the truth is that I’m not trying to criticize—just to point things out. I, too, rationalize actions in my own life (though not the part about taking out a loan to go on vacation), and it’s normal to do so.

That’s why I like the saying that human beings aren’t rational—they rationalize.