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More humbling thoughts

It could just be me and the field I have been involved in for some time now. But I observe many people have a career tagline that usually ends with something like "... improving people's lives". 

It seems that, to make a statement like "my work improves people's lives", you need to actually have three things locked down:

1. Grounded understanding of the people you are talking about, including their language, history, religious values, other cultural values, ways of dressing, ways of walking, etc.

2. Experience in seeing what does not actually lead to improvement, including many failed programs with well-defined and clear indicators signifying failure.

3. Proven successes in the business of life-improvement, including many successful programs.

Now, do people who openly say that they are in the business of improving peoples' lives really have these three on a lock down?

It seems impossible to me to get 1 straight. I still feel like I am always learning new things about my own community, let alone others. So how do we ever have a "full" grounded understanding of people?

(I think the process of development is about doing everyday "ordinary" tasks with the consideration of how that task leads to our future kin's prosperity. To be continued inshallah.)
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