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Well, then, to give a much more serious answer than I ventured
yesterday, Kevin, it sounds like your moving into environmental and
general pyschology. It seems to me your verging on examining the various
types of biases that are endemic to the human condition and asking how
we take various tendencies toward bias into account and overcome them to
communicate effectively. Is that a fair restatement of the question?
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 4:14 PM
To: Tony Chung; TECHWR-L Writing
Subject: RE: A different "personality type" angle
If Tony Chung meant what I sorta think he mighta meant when he said:
> I'm sure everyone is passionate about something. Ardent fans and
> critics alike are extremely passionate to push their perspective.
>
> I think to not express any enthusiasm for anything whatsoever is a
> sure sign of being emo. I wouldn't even say the non-enthused are at
> risk of depression, because depression is usually caused by caring too
> much.
. . . then . . . but some people would save their passion for a
discussion about ethics, policy, religion - something that matters. They
wouldn't "waste" it on something that, other than the big-business
aspects, is utterly, utterly trivial and fungible. I mean, hell,
doesn't almost every major league sport trade players around all the
time? After a few years, you (the fan) are cheering for the guys that
were [your] mortal enemies just half a career ago, while you are equally
booing and hissing at somebody who was your delight and your
can-do-no-wrong hero just last season, before he took a better offer (or
got traded for two hot defence men and a second-line player to be named
later).
Similarly, you have guys driving Fords with that decal in the back
window of Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes) peeing on the Chevy logo... and
vice-versa. The Ford guy loyally bought Ford trucks all during those
years that Ford was making junk quality. The Chevy guy? Same idea, but
it was a different set of years. Substitute any other brand loyalty.
Blind taste tests always have the majority of participants choosing the
Pepsi, but when they buy a bottle or can that they can see, they choose
Coke. Go figure.
That kind of entrenched filtering (and the penchant for it) must have
some affect on how a person takes in information
and what they do with it. Could there be a useful
correlation that could be exploited in an instructional setting (as
opposed to a marketing/advertising setting)?
Or is that stuff entirely orthogonal to learning/apprehending technical
procedures and concepts?
- K
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