Last night I read something on Twitter which both alarmed me and cheered me up. The reason it alarmed me was I knew the person who tweeted it had some idea of the subject in question. The reason it cheered me up is because it actually rings true for the situation I am currently in.
The tweet asked for a particular group of people to explain exactly what they do – as opposed to what they are supposed to do. There is a big difference between the two.
I am the kind of person who loves explanations of things – particularly if they are likely to affect me in some way. The best way to do it is usually with a lot of patience. My brain doesn’t necessarily compute things in the same way as most people so you might get seemingly random questions fired at you. At the same time, please give me some time (as in at least five seconds) to process what you tell me before asking if I have any questions – unless, of course, you are interviewing me for a job.
The trouble is – we seem to have lost the art of explanations. I don’t want to use the horrible cliche “dumbing down” but it would appear that in our current “soundbite society” we don’t appear able to read between the lines and argue our case properly without it degenerating into an abusive fight.
I saw something on Facebook some time ago which made me smile – it was a picture with a slogan along the lines of “It is possible to disagree with something and continue with your day”.
If you would like to argue with me in order to try to change my opinion on something you need to be able to back your position up with facts and experience. Otherwise we will just have to agree to disagree.
I wish we could teach arguing and explaining in schools. It would make life a lot easier.
Simple Things 