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This was one of the major practical lessons I got out of Thinking, Fast and Slow. Before reading that book I would try to get people to change by powerful logca
by kqr 5y ago
This was one of the major practical lessons I got out of Thinking, Fast and Slow. Before reading that book I would try to get people to change by powerful logcal argument. I would get frustrated when people didn't immediately realise the potential I was explaining.
Having read that book, I've realised people need to hear something many times before their system 1 will even consider thinking of it as true. So these days, I have much more patience and I deliberately employ repetition strategies -- sometimes with powerful logical arguments, but sometimes without, too. It's about as effective either way, in my experience.
Saying "we need to also consider a solution that doesn't use Oracle" in different contexts and with different reasons attached over a few weeks time somehow mysteriously gets people to think that maybe we should at least consider a solution that doesn't use Oracle.
- fragmede 5y agoMysteriously? People talk to each other and it gets around that hey, we'd better not use Oracle, kqr really hates them. Depending on your status in an org, that's enough to move mountains, or get you ejected (professionally and quietly). Oracle's an easy one to hate because programmers have issues about money, but other opinions require more depth before things can actually change. Eg hey let's switch programming languages!
- kqr 5y agoI deliberately chose Oracle as the example for this comment, because I wanted to step on as few toes as possible. In reality, it's been about more contested topics. But I never try to frame it as me hating something. I always think of it in terms of actual realiseable costs and benefits.