Truth Is What Corresponds To Reality

Something that we struggle with as a community is figuring out what’s true. And it’s not only because there is fake and altered information circulating, but because the truth in many ways is subjective. We all want to align on what the truth is but it’s nearly impossible to separate that from our truth. And our truth is just what corresponds to our reality.

I want to challenge you to consider that truth as a perspective. Let me share two examples of how that might be possible.

First if you were to look at the shadow of a cylinder, what shape would it be? Well that depends on the perspective. Shine the light from the top and the shadow is a circle. Shine it from the side and it’s a rectangle. So both answers are right. Yet someone who only sees one will argue that’s the truth. It corresponds with their reality and experience when they looked at the shadow.

Or how about someone who testifies in court. They’re offering an alibi for someone confirming they couldn’t have committed the crime because that person was out of town. But they’re operating off of what the criminal told them, which was false information, but got interpreted as the truth. So the person testifying actually misrepresents what happened because they were operating from a truth that was misinformed.

What’s more useful to consider than the truth are the facts. You cannot deny that someone saw a circle shadow. You cannot deny that someone said they were going to be somewhere. Where we get into trouble is how we interpret the facts to assign a truth to it. Our interpretation determines our reality, and if that’s subjective, then so is truth.

The solution to overcoming disagreements like these is context. All of the details around the facts cause them to be understood in different ways. And the best way to fill gaps in understanding, and share context, is to overcommunicate.  Do that and you’ll find that your perception of reality more closely maps to that of others, which leads to more alignment, better collaboration, and faster progress.

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