From: <palma@xxxxxxxx>
> Now I am honestly losing track.
> What is the point here? That "might makes it right"? That if one-two-n
> people believe firmly, fervidly imagine, take for certain that X, then
> X?
Yes, that sums it up: Might makes right. The majority determines reality.
> That is at best a shoddy piece of reasoning.
No, it's broken. It's not reasoning at all. But it's reality.
To say "that's illogical" or "it doesn't compute" is to withdraw. That
won't
convert them.
> My preferred example is the vast majority of Germans who fervidly
> believed that the Slavs were vermin to be exterminated. They changed
> their mind in Stalingrad in this very days of winter of 1942.
"Battlefield conversion" isn't sufficient. True believers die for wrong
beliefs. Just look at suicide bombers.
This isn't a theorectical or philosophical issue for me. I have to deal
daily with people who don't understand complex processes. They are not
dumb
or average intelligence. They are smart people who are successful in the
business world. But everyone isn't bright at everything; there are many
things that I'm lousy at.
So I have to explain the process. Put it up on a white board. Walk them
through it with simple examples. Correct the numbers (and they nearly
always
mix up the numbers, which is why I pointed out that one can indeed
imagine
2,222 + 2,222 = 5,444; I see this nearly daily). When they grasp the
examples, then we move on to actual cases, using their company's numbers.
This generally works.
(Not all of them get it. I'd say about 95% figure it out. But
occassionally,
a few simply don't get it. They stick to their ideas. As we say in Calif:
whatever. Move on. There's plenty of others who will get it.)
Palma was right: motivation (not logic) is key. Business people want a
few
bright and shiny things: get more sales (they get a bonus), beat the
competition (that's quite fun), grow the business (the wife and kids will
be
happy; the employees will be happy) and so on. Business isn't complex
like
academia.
They don't really care that 2+2=4 because it is logical. They care only
if I
can show them that it grows sales. If it doesn't "impact the bottom line"
(as they say), then it's irrelevant. If one could show that astrology
works,
they'd use it.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not being snobbish about this. I find it
fascinating. Just as engineering or chemistry is the hands-on effort to
understand and manipulate the physical world, business is a practical
effort
to manipulate a wildly complex situation. It's very satisfying and
challenging to come up with solutions that actually work.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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