pop-writing

My Linked Notes

• the-power-paradox
  

  He ends the book by showing the hidden negative effects of powerlessness. Throughout this section, Keltner does a great job of mixing together the Personal and Observational pillars of [[POP writing]]. In Chapter 5, he walks through the different ailments of his neighbors from the rural town of Penry, showing examples of how poverty can have clear negative effects. One idea that stood out to me was Keltner's finding that less powerful people are more likely to attribute success or failure to a person's environment, while more powerful people are likely to attribute success to an individual's skill and work ethic (hence "Narratives of Exceptionalism"). People have more awareness of environmental forces when the effects are negative, as opposed to those from healthy environments, who assume their good luck is a reflection of hard work. It becomes easy to think you would have had the skill willpower to succeed either way. Is that really true?

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