I enjoy pictures and videos from the International Space Station. Every spot on the Earth looks gorgeous from 400 miles up while traveling at 17,500 miles/hour. Many places on Earth are gorgeous at ground level, too, but not the garbage piles, slums, and graffiti. All your senses work at ground level.
In a related way, everyone else’s job tends to look easier than yours. You rarely see all their messes and complexity, whereas your face gets shoved into your messes every hour.
Sometimes distance gives us clarity and insight. Often, we need to find solutions to real problems at a higher level than the problem exists (because it’s part of a larger system). Wise leaders are mindful that distance masks the details.
