Why Is It Easier to Solve Other People's Problems?

Why are the solutions to other people's problems so easy, while our own problems seem so much harder? Turns out this phenomenon is real, and even has a name: "Solomon's Paradox."

In this episode we discuss how distance from a situation gives us clearer perspective, and how we might transfer that clarity to the problems in our own lives.

Amy and Margaret discuss:

• Why it's easier to see other people's situations more clearly than our own
• Why it's easier for us to see what our kids need to do in sticky situations than for them to see it
• Why we sometimes may not be solving other people's problems as well as we thought
• How to apply the wisdom we bring friends' issues to our own situations

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:

• Kean Poon: "Hot and Cool Executive Functions in Adolescence: Development and Contributions to Important Developmental Outcomes" from Frontiers in Psychology Journal
• Maggy Elsousou for Medium: "Why It’s So Much Easier To Solve Other People’s Problems Than Your Own"
• Jeannie Ngoc Boulware for University of Chicago: "Conversations on Wisdom: Igor Grossmann"
• Anne Lamott TED Talk: "12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing"
• Caeleigh MacNeil for Asana: "How the sunk cost fallacy influences our decisions"
• Grossman and Kross: "Exploring Solomon's Paradox: Self-Distancing Eliminates the Self-Other Asymmetry in Wise Reasoning About Close Relationships in Younger and Older Adults" in Psychological Science

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