Writing habit

For the past few months I have been busy with work and not able to concentrate and write down my thoughts on this blog.

The less I write the more difficult it looks to do it next time. So here I am again with a self promise that I am going write more and more to contribute something useful (thats first priority) and develop my writing habit.

It is also time to start looking for more simplification in my personal and business affairs. Simplification is not something you do can once and then forget. The evolutionary process seems to favor complexity. So we need to devote some dedicated time, daily or at least weekly, to our simplification drive.

Posted via email from Saqib Awan

Literacy verses Operacy

by Edward de Bono in New Zealand

22nd June 1998

The Millennium Conference is now under way. For details please see below. Some input will still be included in my weekly message but the bulk - including comments and contributions - will be published in the special conference area.

Last week I suggested beginning with a look at education since that is generally accepted as the basis of society.

I have not done a full survey or review of education systems around the world so the views I express are based on personal experience. I would say that all education systems I have had contact with are a disgrace and a disaster. How can that be? The reason is that education is a locked-in and self-complacent system. No matter how motivated and excellent individuals may be, and there are many such talented people in education, change is virtually impossible.

There are two important and apparently contradictory principles:

1. Everything now taught in education has a high value.
2. Most of what is taught in schools is of very little value to the students or to society.

In the European Union something like 25 per cent of schooling time is spent on mathematics. Yet 90 per cent of those leaving school probably use less than 3 per cent of what they have learned in the mathematics lessons. When did you last use algebra, trigonometry, set theory or calculus?

So why do we spend so much time teaching this amount of mathematics?

1. Because it trains the mind. There is no evidence for this at all. If we were really concerned with training the mind we could spend a fraction of this time directly teaching thinking - with far more relevance to the lives of ordinary people. For example, something like 90 per cent of mistakes in everyday thinking are mistakes of perception. Mathematics can do very little about this.
2. Because mathematics is required for many careers in science, engineering and technology. True, but do we need to train a hundred people so that four can undertake such careers? Surely, it would make more sense to teach the relevant skills as part of such professional training.
3. Because mathematics was there before. This is the real reason. Everyone knows the value of mathematics so no one dare attack the huge amount of time spent on mathematics.
4. Because teachers, examinations and the curriculum lock us into the matematics requirements.

The last two reasons are the real reasons.

1. Mathematics has a high value. So does every other subject taught in education. But time is limited in education. There may be subjects that have an even higher value. Let me mention just three.
2. Basic constructive thinking skills. This is the most important subject of all - virtually never taught. This subject helps youngsters get on with their own lives and also to contribute to society. Is that not a disgrace?
3. Understanding "Value creation in society". This again is a key subject. Is it not a disgrace that youngsters leave school knowing about the War of the Roses but have no idea as to how business works?
4. "Operacy" and the skills of doing. The notion that it is enough to "know" is both absurd and dangerous. Research has shown that youngsters who pursued hobbies did much better in life - because they has some experience of operacy. I believe that half the time devoted to sports should be devoted to hobbies and "operacy" projects.

Communication, interpersonal and group skills. Also very important.

All these things are so very obvious. Why are they not happening?

1. Because there are no exams in such subjects and the subjects are not on any curriculum.
2. Because there are no teachers to teach such subjects.
3. Because universities set school leaving examinations and universities are out of touch with the real needs of society.
4. Because change attracts criticism.

When Charlemagne was the greatest leader in Europe, he could not read or write. It was the role of scribes and notaries to look after the reading and writing activity. Education developed around teaching such necessary skills to scribes and notaries. That is the direct heritage of education. Education has expanded in two ways. It expanded to mass education for all. Education also sought to make available all human knowledge.

Add to this a fatal dominance by (and obsession with) the Greek Gang of Three and we have our current education system.

At the top end we have indeed made some progress - mainly in science and technology. But at lower levels we have made virtually no progress at all. That is why I used the rather strong terms of disgrace and disaster.

If teaching basic thinking skills to illiterate workers (platinum miners in South Africa*) can reduce grievances from 210 a month to 4 a month - then the ideas I suggest above are not only possible but they are incredibly powerful.

© McQuaig Group 1998

The above piece may be re-published in any magazine, newspaper or journal provided that it is not altered and the copyright line is given.

What the best talkers have in common

Here is a excerpt from the book "How to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere" by Larry King.

1. They look at things from a new angle, taking unexpected points of view on familiar subjects.
2. They have broad horizons. They think about, and talk about, a wide range of issues and experiences beyond their own daily lives.
3. They are enthusiastic, displaying a passion for what they're doing with their lives and an interest in what you're saying to them at that moment.
4. They don't talk about themselves all the time.
5. They are curious. They ask "Why?" They want to know more about what you're telling them.
6. They empathize. They try to put themselves in your place, to relate to what you're saying.
7. They have a sense of humor. And they don't mind using it on themselves. Infact, the best conversationalists frequently tell stories on themselves.
8. They have their own style of talking.

Keep talking.

Everything popular is wrong

Read the book "Rework" (on NYT, WSJ bestseller lists) and start believing the quote which is title of this post. From book title page:

• ASAP is poison
• Under-do the competition
• Meetings are toxic
• Fire the workaholics
• Emulate drug dealers
• Pick a fight
• Planning is guessing
• Inspiration is perishable.

Book excerpt is available in PDF format from book home page.

Fake moral lessons

Many facebook discussions start with some quotable quote or a story. Fake moral stories are on the rise as well. Consider the following interesting discussion on facebook based upon a fake story (names and some discussion removed for brevity and to protect the innocent)

Eagle siting on a tree doing nothing. Rabit thought to do the same & sat on ground. A wolf came & ate it. Lesson: To sit & do nothing, you need to be on top!!

Another friend replied to this with another similar story:

WELL SAID, I heard an other story i mean not related to this but funny;

A turkey was chatting with a bull. 'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.''Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.'The turkey pecked at a ... See Morelump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral Bull Shitt might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

I replied with:

I think that both these stories also demonstrate a critical flaw of logic; you can prove anything with logic using an appropriately constructed story involving humans, animals, plants, stars etc.

There are three problems with stories like this:

1. These stories are obviously fake. No one was sitting with those animals and recording their "thinking" for the story.
2. We can make animals do whatever we want to according to our planned outcome.
3. Even if the above two things were right somehow, we are still generalizing from one example which is surely a wrong thing to do. (See http://lesswrong.com/lw/dr/generalizing_from_one_example/)

There are better ways to teach and I shall be writing about some of these in future.

Corporate speak

What is corporate speak (without corporate speak)?

1. Corporate talk which means nothing to common people.
2. An ambiguous way of communication you won't use with your mother, wife or kids.

Definition

Management-speak has triumphed. It has made much of our everyday language dull, dimwitted and meaningless. To sound professional, you must express everything in abstract nouns, and each noun in terms of another one; you must talk about synergy and strategy, uptake and outcomes and outputs and inputs, key performance indicators and drivers and customer experience - even if your 'customers' are in fact patients in a hospital. Your words will be obscure and indigestible. You will conform to the new way. You will surrender the ability to write and speak with spontaneity or clarity and, with prolonged use, even your ability to think clearly. (Source: Weasel words)

And from wikipedia:

Marketing speak refers to particular patterns of language often used to promote a product or service to a wide audience by seeking to create the impression that the vendors of the service possess a high level of sophistication, skill, and technical knowledge. Such language is often used in marketing press releases, advertising copy, and prepared statements read by executives and politicians.

Marketing speak is characterized by its heavy use of buzzwords, neologisms, and terms appropriated from specialized technical fields which are eventually rendered almost meaningless through heavy repeated use in inappropriate contexts.

Who talks like this?
Used mostly in big corporations. Independent  consultants also love it. They want to convince you that they are really capable and delivering something you don't know. They are actually delivering nothing. Makes them feel important and you look as stupid as possible. Some intellectuals also love it.

Examples

A job at micrsoft.com:

If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in ‘Compete’, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux& Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!

From an IT company website:

We take the initiative to redirect with diversity of though, superior coordination and affirmative appraoch, ingenuity of ideas and assessment of skills, which are conductive to the success of any firm. That's why we are committed to quality and value. We are trying to make I.IT a basic need for business development so the creation of reporting in vast fields of business can modify and the decision making power can get improve for the business.

Oh God, I am in trouble. I can't speak like that. Any help?
Yes here is one glossary for the innocent victims.

Simple banking

Few months ago I lost my ATM/debit debit card. I promptly called my bank and was put on hold because "all operators were busy serving customers". After some waiting and patience I finally got my card blocked. The operator asked me to make a new call to order my new card due to bank "policy".

After going through the call center hell again (including authenticating myself with personal information and getting transferred a couple of times), the operator told me that she could not forward my request and I had to visit the bank branch where I had opened my account. When I insisted she told me that my account was marked "high risk" and she could not take any request on phone.

I could not go to my bank partly due to work and partly due to laziness. Now a funny thing happened. I started living without my debit card but just a bit more financially organized. I just had to think a bit more in advance about my expected expenses and used my good old cheque book to draw money from a branch near my home.

Last week I went to my branch and got my debit cards permanently deleted from my account.

Perceived convenience and actual convenience are two different things. What do you think?