Tuesday, November 30, 2004

The problem with training. . . . Sales or otherwise.

If you prefer the multimedia version, click here.

Training assumes basic education has already happened.
Basic education means learning to think with logic.
In the presence of basic education, training can happen.
In the absence of basic education, it's mostly a waste of time.

With a lot of practice logical thinking gets close to natural thinking.
Busy people need to respond now.
Respond now means natural thinking.
It's always better to "Stop and think" to give logic a chance.

"Thinking (with logic) is hard."
Listening (with respect) is even harder.
The best way to learn both is to practice, practice, practice.
The easiest place to practice is with your wife or husband or boy friend or girl friend.

Practice predicting what is going to happen the next day.
After some time, practice predicting next week, then next month.
Longer than than logical thinking is ok.
The better strategy is plan for the worst, hope for the best.

An argument is not bad.
An argument is good.
An argument does not mean fighting.
An argument means thinking with logic.

Wikipedia says:

In logic, an argument is a set of one or more declarative sentences (or "propositions") known as the premises along with another declarative sentence (or "proposition") known as the conclusion. A deductive argument asserts that the truth of the conclusion is a logical consequence of the premises; an inductive argument asserts that the truth of the conclusion is supported by the premises.

Each premise and the conclusion are only either true or false, not ambiguous. The sentences composing an argument are referred to as being either true or false, not as being valid or invalid; arguments are referred to as being valid or invalid, not as being true or false. Each premise and the conclusion must be capable of being true or false and nothing else: they are truthbearers.

Since each statement must be true or false, that means you have to listen to the world.

Listen to people.
Listen to mathematical data.
Listen to books.
Listening to a face to face conversation is hardest of all.

A face to face conversation is the richest of media.
Words, motions, smells, tastes, ever changing context.
Separating noise from signal to know what the speaker means by the words they say.
The best strategy is listening with respect.

Filtering rich media can yield lots of useful information.
Useful information can help decide if a sentence in an argument is true or false.
If the logic works, you can make a pretty good guess about reality.
You are starting to think like a doctor.

But the world is messy, not logical.
Sometimes logical thought is the best way to predict the future.
Sometimes natural thought is the best way to predict the future.
Sometimes neither works very well.

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