>Where we humans get in trouble is because of a lack of artifacts about
>this human-created shorthand you mention. What is manifested as your
>abstraction of a particular universal story and my manifestation of the
>same universal story is often different. In my workplace, I have
>described a multi-faceted business dilemma as a three-headed dragon.
>Because everyone I am explaining the problem to has seen movies
>(artifacts) which had three-headed dragons in them, we all "see" the same
>thing and can relate to the imagery. Without the artifacts and even with
>them, collectively operating with the same abstractions is very difficult.
>-- From the example above, I have difficulty getting people to focus on
>the same "head" of the dragon.
>
>Chris Michel
>chris.michel@daytonoh.attgis.com
Chris: If what you're saying is that reality is subjective, I couldn't
agree with you more. Many (perhaps most) of the problems in life come
from not fully appreciating that each of us has our own take on what
reality is like and how we should behave in light of that. I have my view
and you have yours. Yet, if I don't appreciate that, I will be working
hard to prove to you that I am right and you are wrong. Mostly this will
just create a lot of conflict between us. I have come to understand that
the only way I can get others to consider my subjective views is for me to
consider theirs, or at least acknowledge that they will, by definition, be
somewhat different from mine.
Conclusions, or our views, are ultimately not what's significant in life,
anyway. They are only temporary points on our journey of understanding.
So it's a good idea for none of us to take them too seriously. What's
significant, and what we all have in common, is that we are on this
journey, and that we all use the same processes of understanding to come
to our temporary conclusions. If we acknowledge that in each other, then
we open ourselves to learning from each other and continuing on our way.
I sometimes like to tell a person, "you're absolutely right, and I totally
disagree with you," meaning that given your assumptions and experience,
you have come to a conclusion consistent with those assumptionsand
experience. Given my assumptions and experience, I have come to
conclusions consistent with those. In the best double-loop learning
tradition, this opens us up to exploring our assumptions, finding the
common ground (forgive that cliche), looking at whether that will help us
behave in more productive, life-affirming ways, and move ahead.
Just some thoughts early in the morning.
-- John Woods jwoods@execpc.com "The world is exactly like we think it is, and that's why."