What is more troublesome than personal attack or denunciation of others is to fall into The trap of personal attacks of blaming oneself. The same problem continues unimproved, but if you see yourself (your personality or abilities) as the root cause of the problem, then the only way to solve the problem is to change yourself. This is the basis of the doctrine that many self-help books “propagate,” but from a problem-solving perspective, it is a demagoguery that not only avoids practical problem-solving, but also induces futile efforts. Problem Solving Compendium p. 312
What is the practical solution to the problem in this case? Even if “the only thing you can change is your actions,” there are numerous options for how and which actions to change. You must first understand the overall structure of the problem, whether there is a root cause or not, whether there is a vicious circle or not, and then think about how you can change your behavior to solve the problem, but you myopically attribute the cause to yourself.
→Related: “Root causes exist” is not Heng-true
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