Thursday, June 3, 2021

Nice versus Competent

 

No More Mister Nice Guy

No more Mister Nice Guy
No more Mister Clean,
No more Mister Nice Guy,
They say he's sick, he's obscene.

Is it better to be Nice than to be Competent?

I am replaying in my mind an argument with my late father-in-law from years ago. I wish he were here so I could tell him that he was right.  We both agreed that if a person were nice and competent, we would choose him.  We both agreed that if a person were nasty and incompetent, we would not choose him.  We disagreed over the other mixtures. My father-in-law argued for nice but incompetent, while I argued for nasty but competent. I said that I would choose a mechanic who was nasty and competent rather than one who was nice but incompetent.  I would like to change my vote.

A nice person is unlikely to lie about the answer.  A nice person is likely to admit when he originally gave a wrong answer.  I can not always judge a person’s competence.   A nice person will tell you when he incompetent.  A nasty person might tell you that he is competent even when he is knows that he is incompetent.  In my opinion, nice and incompetent IS better than nasty and competent.

No comments:

Post a Comment