compelling
April 01, 2003
The writing going on at How to Save the World is downright compelling, along the lines of: thanks for writing so I don't have to. See these most recent postings for example: (0000CJ)
- Losing The Game (0000D2)
- A description of a game of SurvivalBowl, Man on one side, Earth on the other. Earth has had the trophy since the beginning of time. The rules state that a tie means both sides win but Man just can't get a handle on this and is botching it. (0000CL)
- He's Really a Good Man at Heart, Officer (0000D3)
- America described as a family, repeatedly brutalized by a drunk, that is always making excuses for the drunk. (0000CN)
Lot's of people get annoyed with this metaphoric way of thinking. I was recently told to get out of fantasyland for using it. I think, though, that it is a powerful tool for getting ideas into our heads that are otherwise just too big to handle. Metaphors are handles on large concepts, much like the names of Patterns in PatternLanguages?. (0000CO)
Sending...
Comments
One problem with speaking in metaphor is that it is difficult to reason accurately about metaphors, and hence one is likely to take them too far in one direction or another and end up giving a wrong impression or propagating a falsehood. Metaphor can be instructive as an introduction to an idea, but if the idea has any real basis in fact, you ought to be able to switch gears and speak in those facts. If you find it is quite difficult to do so, you should start to question the validity of the metaphor.
You make a good point, but I guess what matters is what part of the idea process you are concerned with. These days I'm obsessed with idea generation; what happens after the idea is generated is almost irrelevant. I realize this is not particularly productive, I'll come back in line soon. (0000M9)
You might enjoy this blog entry. Is about the importance of facts: (0000MA)
Thanks Chris. I wish the second metaphor was my idea. It is, as you say, a very compelling one, and one that has attracted a lot of comment everywhere it has been cited. The minute I read it I said "Aha, I need to tell people about this." It's what my cohorts would call a 'virulent meme'. The first metaphor was mine, and it's been kicking around in my head for awhile, so I had to let it out. Sports metaphors are always dangerous, almost intuitively too simplistic to be sustained. But it will have to do until I come up with a better one. -/- Dave