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200 words, advanced, common sense, communicate, complicated, conversation, demographics, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, just ask, surveys
“Nonsense is good only because common sense is so limited. ” ~ George Santayana
Is it just me, or have we become so advanced that everything has become more complicated? Who was it that decided unless you are an expert in a certain field you can’t have an opinion?
Remember when if you wanted to know how something was affecting people, you just asked?
Remember listening to your gut and gauging what you would say next based on a person’s body language and responses?
When did having a simple conversation become so scary?
When did we decide the best way to figure something out is to ask everyone (except those in question) through polls or surveys what they think?
If I want to know what your favourite meal is I won’t hire a Chef to conduct a survey of folks in your age group and income level who live in your neighbourhood to find out what they like and then serve it up to you.
I will just ask you.
Don’t get me wrong, I think surveys are fun. Studies produce helpful results.
But please let’s not forsake face to face asking.
~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~
What do you think?
talktodiana 
This is expansion! Moving the boundaries to a greater expanse. I can gather information from almost anywhere in this day, and age.
A one on one is, of course the opportunity we’ve had with one another since the beginning of time. Now, we can add to that, never forsaking that which we’ve always had.
This is all about flexibility to add new ways of doing things, including the one on one. New sources, and a greater opportunity to exercise a discerning common sense.
Good post!
PS I might be at the other end of the stick but, sources closest to me, tell me, there are no pucks in baseball. My discerning common sense agrees with the consensus.
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ha! thanks for the laugh regarding pucks and baseball! And of course, thank you as well for stopping by and commenting. 🙂
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Have you noticed that these survey’s all get the results the client was looking for. They craft the questions to get the results they want, much prefer a chat over coffee or tea, mind you dinners work too as you point out.
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Dinner? Great! Now I’m hungry! 🙂
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Great quote–and the tree zombies picture is the perfect illustration for this post. 🙂
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Do you have a yearly Zombie walk where you live? It really is the most bizzare thing! You can check out more pictures here: https://talktodiana.wordpress.com/?s=zombie&submit=Search I’m wonder what Helena would have thought of this!
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loving the zombies…..and you are so right…..why do we complicate things even more?!?
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sometimes I think it lies in insecurity. If we can be the expert in a subject and make it very detailed and difficult to understand, then we stand out? What do you think?
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I think you have nailed it. An attempt at making the other person feel inadequate on a subject boosts the expert’s ego? I sure am glad I am not an expert on anything! lol!
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It’s called job creation! haha
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I know for a fact that this happens. Workers sometimes protect their jobs by making it hard for others to pick up their work. I can think of two examples from my work place. One guy didn’t comment his code (provide non-code explanations within the code, something all programmers do (or should)). He was upfront about the reason: to protect his job. Another guy I was supposed to help out refused to share his work with me (all sorts of excuses). Conversations with others who knew him revealed that this was common. Again, protecting his job.
(There is also another mode: the self-styled “expert” who is insecure about their expertise and uses very negative criticism to imply their own superiority. Many of the wannabe interweb film critics seem to fall into this mode. By slamming some actor or director they imply their own superiority.)
However, speaking as an expert in several fields, the reality is that stuff is complicated (especially these days). The amount of detailed and precise information in these fields is very high. And here’s the thing: I’ve tried all my life to bring others up to this level. I’ve always been willing to teach those willing to learn (it’s a central goal of my blog). I want the company (it’s lonely up here). The problem is, when most people realize how complicated and detailed some of this stuff really is, they tend to lose interest.
And the reality is that isn’t not easy. It’s like being willing to devote your life to body-building (in this case brain and expertise building). It does require constant effort. I became an expert through almost 50 years of experience and education. Not many want — or in some cases are even able due to other life commitments — to put in that kind of effort.
But I cannot tell you how many times I’ve wished I could clone myself or find others at my level at work. Time after time I end up doing all the heavy lifting (and I’m friggin’ exhausted), because there’s no one else that can step up. I would gladly share everything I knew with someone willing to do so.
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Yes, real technical stuff is a category all on its own! In that area I don’t know how to do it but I definitely know what I want it to do! And yes, I don’t want to learn the details of how it is done. 🙂 Kudos to you though, for being willing to share your knowledge!
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Thanks. I feel bad for those left behind in an increasingly technical world. That stuff is so easy for me… I wish I could pass that part of it on to others.
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Don’t feel bad. It’s just like not everyone is an accountant or lawyer or doctor either. 🙂
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True! At the same time, having some accurate foundational knowledge about economics, the law or medicine is pretty helpful.
I see it as being like knowing a little about how your car works. If you know nothing, you’re completely at the mercy of your mechanic (so better find a good and honest one). If you know a little bit, you can at least have a reasonable conversation with him or her.
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Yes it’s good to know enough to be dangerous but I couldn’t possibly know a bit about everything. Definitely the areas that interest me, I do some reading, etc like health for instance.
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I’m a statistician, so I know the value of data, but there’s a time and a place. Forever and everywhere isn’t it.
Good post Diana.
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Thanks for your feedback Rob! I too appreciate a survey and the data that can be gleaned. I have noticed that sometimes people’s actual actions disagree with the way they answer surveys, in particular, where fundraising is concerned. There, building relationships (one-to-one) and having conversations works better. And in mail campaigns, if you asked most people what they think of a true fundraising letter, they will tell you they hate it, but when you send it out, it typically yields the best results.
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Come over and have a drink with me, Diana, and ask me my opinion on this face to face. 😉
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Oh Jennifer – I would love to be able to do that!
xo
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Good points raised in this post. I was wondering about the zombies in the tree, glad someone else asked before me 🙂
I have actually done research involving a community survey in nutrition through a university. The scientific methodology and analysis behind such surveys is hugely complicated! Properly conducted surveys do help in long-term benefits to the community.
At the same time, I absolutely LOATHE those random business and government phone surveys though. They drive me crazy!
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I agree, I have nothing against surveys – only when they’re done in lieu of actual conversations, like at the work place for example. 🙂
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Agreed.
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I am with you here. I find everything has gone more complicated. Nothing is simple straight forward. Do we think differently now with all the technology. Even sometimes face to face conversations are scary as you say, and in a meeting the other day , I had to get them back on track all the time, which was a simple question , but it was not simply answered. Why make life complicated, it doesn’t have to be.
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I totally agree! Sometimes by making things complicated, are we just stalling so we don’t have to do anything? Playing it safe, so to speak?
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Ha yes absolutely such a pertinent topic. I read an article recently about how we always have to quote other people’s ideas these days and never have any of our own, e.g. “I read an article recently about…” lol (it wasn’t an article by you by any chance was it?)
Another side effect of this whole social reverse evolution is that there are experts on everything. Watching the news often makes me chuckle when something (completely irrelevant and not at all beneficial to me to know) considered newsworthy must be analysed. Of course only an expert can be interviewed in the studio.
On the other hand though, any passer by qualifies as an expert “eye witness” to some crazy overhyped event that the news channels have not yet found an expert to comment on yet. You and I have free rein in these situations to come up with any crazy theories about what has happened.
Wow look at what just happened. I just had a long conversation with myself on your post haha 😀
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haha and I love the conversation you had! And nowI’m thinking – hey – didn’t I just write a post inspired by a quote written by someone else? D’oh!
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There is a huge difference between parroting the views and words of others and using them as a springboard to express your own thoughts!
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So true Smitty – thanks! 😉
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I like the post and your fun photo Diana!
Russ
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Why thank you very much Russ!
Cheers,
Diana
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Different tools for different purposes. If I want to know what your favorite meal is, I’ll ask you. If I want to know what the favorite meal is of people “like you” (geographical, age group, gender, etc.) then a poll is the only way. (And well-designed polls with appropriate sample sizes can be (repeat: CAN BE) very effective. Just remember the famous Twain quote about statistics.)
That said, as usual, I completely agree with the point you’re making. I don’t think it’s a lack of common sense (which really never was common, although perhaps it’s gotten worse in modern times). I think Kristi above hit one of the nails on the head. I truly believe that our modern social media is eroding our ability to converse and think deep thoughts. I believe this is especially an issue with those brought up in this modern era (us old farts still remember paper books and long conversations). I fear where this leads and what is the end result.
You also touched on what I think is a central issue: life has become complicated. There was a time when any clever person good with tools could fix their washing machine and cars were easy to work on. The technology we used could be understood by just about anyone who was interested and applied themselves. You could understand (more or less) the world in which you lived. I think the complexity of life today has caused many people to simply give up trying to understand any of it.
Add to that how we live in a world filled with smoke, mirrors, illusions and lies, and…. well, it’s a wonder any of us get out of bed most days!
So… what’s your favorite meal? 😀
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I also think that we are always being told not to operate outside of our competency and this leaves many folks with the impression that their opinion doesn’t matter. Just because someone is not trained in a particular topic does not negate their life experience – this is where common sense comes in. Well, at least in my opinion.
As for your question Smitty: Medium steak. Spinach salad with Raspberry vinigerette. A glass of Australian Shiraz. And for dessert: Chocolate dipped strawberries and a glass of Port. Thank you for asking!
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Oh, yes! I meant to comment on your mention of that, too. I just saw that in operation regarding the brouhaha over Boston Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz. He was accused by media implication of having a “shiny substance” on his arm (baseball rules prohibit “foreign substances” except for rosin). One sportscaster defended Buchholz and attacked the sportscaster who made the implication on the basis of his not being Baseball Hall of Fame material.
This ramps up the usual counter-attack sometimes used of, “Well, you never played major league ball, so what do you know?” Now it’s, “Well, you’re not HOF material, so what do you know?” Yikes!
The flip side, though, is that while everyone is entitled to their opinion, not all opinions are equal, and some are pure BS. I do think it is true that your opinion carries more weight if you actually do know what you’re talking about. And in a complicated world with so many interconnecting factors, that’s not as easy as it used to be.
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A good example of a BS opinion is anything that I would possibly say about baseball – I don’t have a clue!
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No baseball? And you call yourself an American?!?
Oh,… wait…. 🙂
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shoot the puck!
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Oh, I see! You’re into gun and shooting sports!
[grinning, ducking & running away]
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Brilliant plan!
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Just don’t shoot me in the back! (With a puck, I mean. :))
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There’s no danger of that!!
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P.S. The dinner sounds great!!
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It tastes delish!
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This is totally spot on post! Yes, I’ve noticed too, that face to face conversation/discussions are becoming rare. Funny, I’m writing a post about it too….to my surprise I see this post and you just nailed it Diana. You are right, we seem to prefer surveys, Facebook, Twitter, emails, sms …anything really, but not straight face to face communication. Although I believe, many misunderstandings and assumptions and conflicts could be avoided, if we’d just use f2f communication….I think it’s because, we’re too busy to deal with real people, we don’t take time to ask genuine question and moreover we don’t take time to listen to a genuine reply. Thanks for thought provoking post!
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Thanks Kristi – I’m looking forward to your post!
xo
Diana
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I discover things by myself. What’s with the tree zombies?
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haha thanks for asking! I’m trying to use only photos that I take now and this one spoke to me as I was going through my folders. It said, “Are we just following along like Zombies when it comes to the accepted practices of how things are done?”
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Totally, completely love this post! The demise of common sense should be mourned–and then sense itself should be resurrected. The paranoid conspiracist in me wonders if it’s a way to further marginalize the “everyman/woman.”
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Oh a very good point! I know I have been made to feel excluded at times. I’m rediscovering my voice and will speak out moving forward! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
xo
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🙂
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