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The Problem With Assuming Positive Intent

Ruth Terry
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Published in
5 min readFeb 26, 2020

Photo: Hinterhaus Productions/Getty Images

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Published in Forge

A former publication from Medium on personal development. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Ruth Terry
Ruth Terry

Written by Ruth Terry

American freelancer in Istanbul writing about culture, mental health, race & travel. Bylines everywhere from Al Jazeera to Zora. Tw: @Ruth_Terry | IG: @ruth.ist

Responses (11)

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Thank you for this story. It’s unfortunate that you had to deal with such a difficult neighbor — I hope your new home is better suited to your needs!
I think you are right in pointing out this problem in assuming positive intent (API). But I also…

“Assume positive intent” doesn’t mean “continue to pretend positive intent once bad intent or obliviousness to others has been demonstrated”.
It means start with the best case, get curious, ask questions and see what’s the actual situation.
Yes…

How about not assuming intent (positive or negative) at all until we’ve had a chance to talk more with the person in question and, as was clearly the case with your neighbor, establish a history of interactions that can lead us to some reasonable…