(1) The difference between “bad frame control” and “good frame control” is that, in the latter, the frame matches physical reality and social reality.
Here, I use “social reality” in the sense of “insights about what types of actions or norms help people flourish.”
(2) The difference between lying and telling the truth is that, when someone doesn’t lie, what they say matches physical reality and social reality.
I feel like there’s a sense in which (1) is true, but it’s missing the point if someone thinks that this is the only difference. If you lie a lot around some subject matter, or if you manipulate someone with what aella calls frame control, there’s always an amount of friction around the subject matter or around the frame that you introduce. This friction wouldn’t be there if you’re going with the truth. The original post points out how frame controllers try to hide that sort of friction or bring down your defenses against it. Those subtleties are what’s bad about the bad kind of frame control. Noticing these subtleties is what it’s all about.
Someone might object as follows:
“Friction” can mean many things. If you try to push people to accomplish extraordinary feats with your weird-seeming startup, you have to motivate them and push against various types of “friction” – motivate your co-workers, make them okay with being seen as weird as long as your idea hasn’t succeeded, etc.
I agree with all that. Good leaders have to craft motivating frames and inspire others with their vision. But I still feel like that’s not the same thing as what happens in (the bad kind of) frame control. The word “control” is a clue about where the difference lies. It’s hard to pin down the exact difference. Maybe it’s something like this:
Good leadership is about offering frames to your followers that create win-win situations (for them and for the world!) by appealing to virtues that they already endorse, deliberately drawing attention to all the places where there’s friction from social conventions or inertia/laziness, but presenting a convincing vision about why it’s worth it to push against that friction.
By contrast, frame control (the bad, sneaky/coercive kind) is about guilting people into thinking it’s their fault if they struggle because of the friction, or trying to not have them notice that there are alternative frames for them.
Compare the two:
(1) The difference between “bad frame control” and “good frame control” is that, in the latter, the frame matches physical reality and social reality.
Here, I use “social reality” in the sense of “insights about what types of actions or norms help people flourish.”
(2) The difference between lying and telling the truth is that, when someone doesn’t lie, what they say matches physical reality and social reality.
I feel like there’s a sense in which (1) is true, but it’s missing the point if someone thinks that this is the only difference. If you lie a lot around some subject matter, or if you manipulate someone with what aella calls frame control, there’s always an amount of friction around the subject matter or around the frame that you introduce. This friction wouldn’t be there if you’re going with the truth. The original post points out how frame controllers try to hide that sort of friction or bring down your defenses against it. Those subtleties are what’s bad about the bad kind of frame control. Noticing these subtleties is what it’s all about.
Someone might object as follows:
“Friction” can mean many things. If you try to push people to accomplish extraordinary feats with your weird-seeming startup, you have to motivate them and push against various types of “friction” – motivate your co-workers, make them okay with being seen as weird as long as your idea hasn’t succeeded, etc.
I agree with all that. Good leaders have to craft motivating frames and inspire others with their vision. But I still feel like that’s not the same thing as what happens in (the bad kind of) frame control. The word “control” is a clue about where the difference lies. It’s hard to pin down the exact difference. Maybe it’s something like this:
Good leadership is about offering frames to your followers that create win-win situations (for them and for the world!) by appealing to virtues that they already endorse, deliberately drawing attention to all the places where there’s friction from social conventions or inertia/laziness, but presenting a convincing vision about why it’s worth it to push against that friction.
By contrast, frame control (the bad, sneaky/coercive kind) is about guilting people into thinking it’s their fault if they struggle because of the friction, or trying to not have them notice that there are alternative frames for them.