Get creative about assuming best intent

Sara Bareilles told a great story on a podcast recently. She was in the middle of performing the big emotional number in her musical Waitress when she saw someone in the front row recording with their phone. She couldn’t see the person because of the stage lights; she just saw just the reflection from the phone.

That crap is against the rules, and Sara wasn’t cool with it. It totally threw her off; she almost forgot the lyrics and was distracted the rest of the show. So afterwards she ranted about it on Instagram and had thousands of people backing her up and talking crap about the person recording.

Then she got a message from someone saying that person was their 12 year old sister. They said the poor girl felt horrible and apologized profusely and was desperate to know how she could make it up to Sara. So of course Sara regretted everything, and since then she’s spent a lot of time checking up on that poor 12 year old fan.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Hanlon’s razor

“What could their intent have possibly been, besides being a jerk?!” is such a temptation, but such a trap. It’s hard to give someone the benefit of the doubt when the doubt isn’t obvious.

Assuming best intent requires a lot of creativity, so great creative! (Or maybe just stop caring?)