OK so I don’t love this term. I think there’s three cases:
it’s your responsibility because of a rule about an action you take.
it’s your responsibility because the outcome is your responsibility.
it’s not your responsibility but you can impact the outcome anyway and maybe you should.
The problem seems to be that responsibility does this language-decay (like “literally” → “figuratively”) from “outcome-based” to “rules-based.” Maybe “heroic” is a strong enough support to prop up the “outcomes” version, but imagine this: Hooli rolls out its new corporate value, “heroic responsibility” to replace its old value of “ownership,” and employees think they’re basically bullshitting and trying to make them do more work for less pay, so they ignore it. So yeah, it’s euphemism treadmill if it gets overused. Which it probably is, among us, by now.
So I don’t love the term because it’s more like a prop to educate, but in the long run we don’t communicate better by diluting what responsibility is in the first place. Like I think we all need to understand that sometimes what we think of as the bare minimum is just failing, and what feels like going above and beyond is the bare minimum, not heroic.
For the 3rd category, it’s just hard for me to think of this as “heroic.”
If you’re antisocial in your heroic responsibility, then we really need to be careful: antisocial is negative utility points. It deducts from the score you get for the moral outcome you’re seeking. Simply put, people will think you’re an asshole, not a hero, and you’re morally responsible for that too. I would avoid calling people heroes for the times when they think they’re right but haven’t convinced anyone else.
Either way, it probably derives from “responsible for your life” or “morally responsible.” For instance going above and beyond to get promoted is the bare minimum to be employable when you’re 10 years older. But these things just aren’t heroic? It’s just really hard for me to think of an example here that matches the connotation of “heroic” without simply being a case of taking responsibility that was already yours.
OK so I don’t love this term. I think there’s three cases:
it’s your responsibility because of a rule about an action you take.
it’s your responsibility because the outcome is your responsibility.
it’s not your responsibility but you can impact the outcome anyway and maybe you should.
The problem seems to be that responsibility does this language-decay (like “literally” → “figuratively”) from “outcome-based” to “rules-based.” Maybe “heroic” is a strong enough support to prop up the “outcomes” version, but imagine this: Hooli rolls out its new corporate value, “heroic responsibility” to replace its old value of “ownership,” and employees think they’re basically bullshitting and trying to make them do more work for less pay, so they ignore it. So yeah, it’s euphemism treadmill if it gets overused. Which it probably is, among us, by now.
So I don’t love the term because it’s more like a prop to educate, but in the long run we don’t communicate better by diluting what responsibility is in the first place. Like I think we all need to understand that sometimes what we think of as the bare minimum is just failing, and what feels like going above and beyond is the bare minimum, not heroic.
For the 3rd category, it’s just hard for me to think of this as “heroic.”
If you’re antisocial in your heroic responsibility, then we really need to be careful: antisocial is negative utility points. It deducts from the score you get for the moral outcome you’re seeking. Simply put, people will think you’re an asshole, not a hero, and you’re morally responsible for that too. I would avoid calling people heroes for the times when they think they’re right but haven’t convinced anyone else.
Either way, it probably derives from “responsible for your life” or “morally responsible.” For instance going above and beyond to get promoted is the bare minimum to be employable when you’re 10 years older. But these things just aren’t heroic? It’s just really hard for me to think of an example here that matches the connotation of “heroic” without simply being a case of taking responsibility that was already yours.