atw: Re: The New World Order, Christine's confession (too long for short concentration spans)

  • From: Janice Gelb <Janice.Gelb@xxxxxxx>
  • To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:27:49 +1100

Christine Kent wrote:
Every now and then I throw out a topic that I know will challenge certain types of thinkers, who will inevitably kick my head in. On this list I can name them and so can everyone else, but it is actually the best way for me to clarify what I am feeling and sensing and get it into words, so I risk the wrath of the academics in order to clarify my own thoughts. 



I agree that the tone of this discussion has left
much to be desired. However, there are ways and ways
to express one's opinion on matters and offer them
up for discussion. For example, take a statement like
the following:

  "Old style academic writers, old style technical
  writers and old style trainers are hanging onto
  values and trying to impose them onto these new
  worlds that do not want them or need them.  We are
  not talking right or wrong here, or good and bad,
  just reality."

That seems to me to be going beyond raising a topic
for discussion and expressing your thoughts about it
and veers into stating as fact what essentially
appears to be solely your opinion given that you
have not cited any evidence to back it up.
…and that’s what makes us so different in approach. I sense and feel something, I get impressions that something is changing, and sometimes I cannot put in enough internal processing to work it out. When I throw it out to other people, even people I know will get downright nasty and patronising (which does not normally include you), I get to hear what I am thinking – it brings it through and out, and even the hostility forces me to clarify (rarely to drop) my own ideas. For the most part the actual feedback does not matter. Hearing my own thoughts it what matters to me, which is a good thing given the quality of the feedback. 



Perhaps this method might work better in an
interactive group face-to-face than in a
mailing list format. Throwing out your not-
entirely-formed thoughts to a group and then
protesting when people point out that the
thoughts are not completely processed doesn't
seem like a method that's going to get positive
results. It also might work better if you made
clear that's what you are doing here.

(I must admit that I'm not entirely thrilled
about someone else taking up my attention and
time and then finding out that I've been used
as a sounding board so that person can get their
thoughts in order and doesn't much care what I
say, but that could just be me.)
But, as some academic expert has not told me all this, I guess I have no right to have even observed it. Is that right? Or is there a different kind of expert, the experiential expert, and is it possible that an experiential expert (like a great horseman who taught himself to ride) might actually be that person who gets to stimulate the academics into doing the research necessary to clarify, quantify and prove what the experiential expert already knows? 



The "experiential expert" can only "know" personal
experience. While you can make some educated guesses
about what that might mean, they are still just opinion
and not fact. Until that experience is verified by
polling a wider group and gathering more evidence,
extrapolating societal and employment trends from it
seems like a rather large leap.

-- Janice

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