Re: Just one more anecdote

Marshall Spight wrote:
> dawn wrote:
> > Marshall Spight wrote:
> > > dawn wrote:
<snip>
> > so that I can keep it in my purse for now, would you be so kind as to
> > arbitrate and let me know why David thinks
> >
> > "You are treating as proven something this audience generally does not
> > accept"
> >
> > when I thought I was clear when I was stating an opinion and that I was
> > making a conjecture and not stating a proven fact? We definitely have
> > a communication gap on that one and I'm curious to know where it is.
>
> Oh no! You asked me for my opinion. That's going to make *everyone*
> unhappy. Having learned nothing from Paris (the son of Priam, not
> Ms. Hilton) I will answer. (Actually I think I've learned nothing
> from Paris Hilton either.)
>
> It strikes me that the issue here is that you've got an extremely
> complex issue, about which we know little, and we're trying to assign
> causes. You've chosen a controversial (aka unpopular) explanation.

not wanting to disappoint

> This explanation advances a recurring theme in your posts,

yes, it is the area I'm wrestling with, but could do less of it in public

> hence
> David's hilarious "is the axe sharp enough" comment.

And somehow I didn't laugh. Call me stupid or ignorant and I can agree that I can be and laugh it off, but call me angry or bitter and I can't figure out how my writing would portray someone so unlike me. I get this self-doubt thing going -- "do I have an axe to grind?" -- I am not conscious of one, so is there something in my subconscious, and on and on and on.

> Point David.

Yup, and for figuring out how to push my buttons

> However, he also took you to task for "assuming" something in a
> paragraph that you started with "My conjecture is" and ended
> with "I could be wrong, of course." And it wasn't even a very
> long paragraph. Point Dawn.

Thanks. I thought I had been clear on that.

> Hurray! Everyone loses!

You mean wins, right?

> Now that I have passed judgement, I expect to be universally
> reviled, as per custom. But just in case I'm not, yet,
> I'm going to throw in my own opinion.

> Ultimately, we cannot begin to assign weights to the various
> potential causes for this project's failure.

I completely agree. The full reasons for anything in history are unknowable, but we can speculate and discuss.

> Such projects
> are simply too complex, and we're not in a good position to
> instrument the process after-the-fact. So we are all just
> speculating based on our particular experiences. What
> is interesting is that our experiences often lead us to
> different conclusions, which suggests to me that many of
> the conclusions we reach have a context-sensitivity that
> we are not aware of.

Yes, and a dialog is good if you want to find more pieces of the puzzle.

>
> Marshall
>
> PS. Okay, it was a weak ending, but it's all I've got.

You still get a point from me. Wait, I see David gave you two, so I'll call his two and raise it one. Cheers! --dawn Received on Thu Jul 28 2005 - 16:47:40 CEST