We know that we shouldn’t complain since it only makes matters worse, but we pretend that it’s useful. In reality, it’s delusional, so here’s a simple equation to figure it out:
Are you willing to work to change something?
- If the answer is yes: Change it.
- If the answer is no: Don’t complain about it.
This is an extremely simple way to inform your next steps, or to understand the reality of someone else. If you or someone else is complaining, then they are either (1) lazy or (2) incapable, and in both cases delusional. There really is no third option, because those that are clear-minded, hard-working, and capable are creating solutions.
This is a very practical reason not to spend time with complainers, because we’ve just proven that all the people who matter aren’t out there complaining. To find the people who matter, you need to avoid the complainers, and join the doers.
You might think that you can change the complainers with this logic, but you can’t use logic to get someone out of a situation where they didn’t use logic to get into it. Complaining is not logical. In fact, it’s an example of cognitive dissonance. It’s a make-pretend reality of doing something for good, while in reality, it does the opposite.
As an example, let’s look at the popular stories on Medium. In one way or another, they’re all complaining to a vacuum:
Now, if these authors could and were willing to create change, would they spend their time complaining? If you were truly willing to put in the work to make a change, you would take action, not talk the talk of complaining.