The misunderstanding of silence We often assume that decisions are visible. Someone speaks up.Someone steps forward.Someone takes action. And when none of that happens, we conclude that nothing was chosen. But this assumption rests on a shallow idea of what a decision looks like. Silence, distance, and restraint are frequently read as avoidance—not because they are empty, but because they are quiet. What we fail to see is that choosing not to act can involve just as much i...