The Greater Error

[Sydney]

Before you get confused, I'll explain the title. Everyone in this world is different, but some of us are similar in more ways than we think. Some of us are very passionate about what we do, while others are very objective. Some may view this as an error in the way they think and preform tasks. Being too passionate could cloud your judgement, while being too objective could lead you to miss things you wouldn't have seen before. Though both have their perks, they also have their flaws. But, regardless of that, what do you believe? What's technically the greater error: being too objective or passionate? Why? Discuss.

 

[Ventus]

Being too passionate about your work tends to make you miss errors that you would have otherwise caught. I'd say it's the worse of the two. If you're passionate about your writing, you might be absolutely livid when one makes a recommendation or suggestion. If you're objective about your writing, chances are you would happily accepted criticism.

 

[Nicole]

I think it's important to be both passionate and objective in a situation. I honestly think being overly passionate or overly objective are equally bad. Extreme passion leads to closed-mindedness, which you can see very clearly anywhere on the internet especially. Any video game forum will have its fanboys that will defend certain consoles/titles/companies to the death and will not listen to any factual evidence. This often occurs in political and religious debates as well, which are very heated topics. Views in those two areas are generally pretty solid and unchanging because of how passionate most people are regarding them.

Being too objective isn't necessarily a bad thing, but lacking passion is. Passion is what drives the world; it's how we invent new technology, medicine, art, et cetera. I think being passionate is one of the most important things you can do in life to attain success. Being without passion, without drive, will prevent you from achieving anything at all. Or if you did, you'd be unhappy doing so.

I don't think being passionate and being objective are mutually exclusive. It's entirely possible to maintain a healthy balance of both and I think the key to success is doing just that. And I believe the greatest error in life is being too flat in one specific area.

 

[Salem]

I think it will be different depending in the thing we're being passionate or objective about.

 

[Chiraku]

Better safe than sorry, and Passionate is definitely not the safest of the two.

 

[Mercedes]

We need both those things, really. It's passionate people who come out with these amazing new ideas and produce technology we now love and technology we may love in the future but they are the ones to really push boundaries, but it's those who can think objectively who tend to refine it, and package it and actually get it into consumer hands after they're all done. Preferably a balance of both is always the best.

 

[Beauts]

I think passion always returns better results than objectiveness. A lot of the value of something for the casual observer comes from the feeling or purpose behind it, and not the thing itself. For example if you're painting a landscape, you can come out with this detail-perfect thing and sure, it would be beautiful but then you could have a photograph of it. Why would art even still exist if that was what it was always about? Sure you can like it but I don't think it's the same, in the end. But if there's a few little authentic mistakes or a style to it, you would probably ultimately value it more because a human being shines through the work. Well, I would anyway. I don't think you can be too passionate about things you believe in, whether it's a task or a belief. I feel like these days, you're not allowed to be passionate about or enjoy anything without being viewed as like over the top or uncool or whatever. Nothing is allowed to be meaningful anymore.

 

[CynicalSquid]

I think it needs to be a happy medium. If you're too passionate you tend to be close-minded or arrogant. They don't really listen to or use any factual evidence and they won't budge at all. They seem to be too blind to think differently of the situation.

Being objective but not passionate is a bad thing though. If you have no passion you won't care enough to do anything in any situation. Without passion, you will never want to achieve anything, and might never achieve anything.

 

[Rocky]

Passion is important in life. You don't want to be known as a stone cold individual, but it has its time and place. Objectivism is what you mainly need. Passion clouds one's judgement and people tend to get too tunnel visioned. It can make one ignorant to the point where they do not want to listen to any advice, and tend to do whatever they're up to until it bites them in the rear. If you're working on something and you're absolutely in love with it, chances are you won't find what is wrong with it until it's too late. Someone with an objective mind should evaluate it. Objectivity brings a clear mind and reason. You need that to focus on work and make sure things go smoothly and end up being a huge success. That's why in the business world you tend to leave passion out of the equation of things. You need to be focusing 100% of the time.

Even in every day life, you still want to be passionate to everything around you, but you don't want to be passionate to the point where you're blind, and people are just taking advantage of that and trampling all over you, whether it is your family, friends, or your lover. You need reason to think things through.