Bias is closing doors you don't even see

You know bias exists. You catch yourself doing it sometimes. But you miss it more often than you think.

The problem? It happens in a split second. A label shows up in your mind, and before you notice, it shapes your next move.

You dismiss an idea. Skip a conversation you've decided won't go anywhere. Sort someone into a box.

Or you turn that bias inward and talk yourself out of something before you even try.

It's costing you more than you realize.

I used to do this constantly.

Had I not caught it, I wouldn't have met the people I've had the privilege to build things with, and people who've shaped my career over the last decade.

One summer in Utah, I realized I'd been experiencing something without bias my entire life. I just never noticed it could teach me how to do the same with people.

Bias runs in the background while you're making everyday decisions.

The cost shows up in small moments:

You dismiss a perspective too quickly (yours or someone else's)

You avoid certain conversations.

You make snap judgments.

We tell ourselves the harm is only on the receiving end. That's not true.

Every automatic judgment you make, every label you carry—it weighs on your own mind. You feel it even when you don't name it.

It's mental clutter. Cognitive load.

The friction between who you want to be and how you're actually moving through the world.

Here's what makes it hard: bias is everywhere. You hear labels constantly—in conversations, in media, in phrases people use without thinking.

Your brain absorbs them. Then they run automatically.

Most times, you can't eliminate or make drastic changes in your environment.

But you can change what happens inside you when those labels show up.

One summer, I was hiking through Zion National Park canyons in Utah.

I spent hours staring at rock formations in rust, cream, gold, all different sizes and shapes. Plants at the canyon peak looked completely different from plants at the bottom.

Everything was different. All of it was beautiful together.

I didn't think "that one's less valuable" or "that doesn't belong here" or "I don't belong here either." I just saw variety. No hierarchy. No labels. No self-doubt.

Later that day, I stopped for food and opened my phone. My feed was filled with posts about social bias.

The contrast clicked.

I don't judge nature because no one taught me categories for it.

But people? I've absorbed thousands of labels. Who's successful, who's capable, who's unsafe, who belongs. Even labels about myself, what I'm capable of, whether I belong.

Once those labels are in our heads, they shape how we see everyone, including ourselves.

Is that our true nature? Or just our minds acting on memories?

Nature's truth is variety without labels. No ranking. No sorting. Just existence in all its forms.

I realized this is what I want to move toward. Closer to how nature operates, because our true nature is nature itself.

Not eliminating critical thinking. That's uniquely human.

But understanding the profoundness of life, nature, and our existence.

Acknowledging that biases are just data points accumulated over time, then choosing consciously when unnecessary, harmful bias arises.

And I thought: how do I do that when it happens in seconds?

I saved a photo from that hike. Not to pull out mid-conversation, but as a mental anchor.

Over time, it helped me notice the moment before bias kicks in.

Now when I catch myself auto-sorting someone, feeling that pull toward a label, I think of that visual. The canyons. The variety. The absence of labels.

It interrupts the automatic response. Gives me a second to think and act consciously.

That became my practice.

If you want to catch bias before it closes another door, here's how the practice works:

Notice the moment. You're in a meeting. Someone speaks, or doesn't. You notice your mind starting to sort. That's the moment.

Recall your visual. For me, it's the canyon. The rock formations. The reminder that variety without bias exists. I've seen it, I've experienced it. It's true.

Ask: what evidence do I actually have? Most of the time? None. I'm just pattern-matching against labels I've heard a thousand times.

This introduces a few seconds of conscious pause.

Then: Stay open. Listen fully. Resist the auto-sort. Act consciously.

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