By: Steve Leland
A computer chip generates heat as it processes. Chips need a heat sink that will absorb the heat and remove it. A chip with less heat sink than it needs overheats and destroys itself.
Often, this is how people are. If they focus for a period of time on what is bothering them, the heat starts to build. Having a friend that they can share their concerns with can help dissipate the heat.
As a red-blooded American male, my first, second, and third inclination is to solve the problem. Because it is a problem, or it wouldn’t be frustrating the other person.
And problems exist to be solved, don’tcha know! Except that, so much of the time, the other party just wants to process the problem…out loud and with feeling. What some of us might refer to as wallowing in it.
Yeah, in case it slipped your attention, disparaging remarks about the validity of processing are not perceived as being all that helpful. Also, matching their level of emotion in the discussion isn’t all that great of an idea, unless your choice is to become a fellow wallower…which isn’t always a bad choice, if their cause seems just.
Hmmm, Team-building Through Wallowing…I’m getting dangerously off-topic.
Back to the subject. You can either help someone blow a head-gasket or be a heat sink. Just another iteration of: Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?
By: Steve Leland
April 19, 2024
