Last week I ruffled some feathers when I shared on LinkedIn that everyone at Amazon needs to just shut up and go back to the office five days a week. 

Okay, that isn’t at all what I said, but based on the comments, that’s how many people interpreted it. 

The Amazon RTO (return to office) outrage shows the gap between how people want the world to work and how the world actually works. I think much of the frustration comes from people wishing things worked differently. They are emotionally tied to their ideal outcome, which impacts their ability to see things clearly. 

As I said in my post, if you can’t see the benefit of working in a physical office with real humans, or can’t understand why a company might want this, I don’t think you’re being intellectually honest. You may think WFH is better, but clearly there are some benefits of being in office. 

Charlie Munger said, “I never allow myself to hold an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.” We would all benefit from this approach. 

There’s a place for idealism. But without intellectual honesty that idealism won’t gain traction. 

You can’t change the world until you understand how the world works.