House of Eratosthenes

Heard the radio guys talking about it a few minutes ago, and when I went to look it up I found it was turning rapidly into an “Everybody else is blogging it, I might as well do it too” thing. I also found it made a great deal of sense. A great deal. Except number nine…since that’s the one I’m missing, I think.

1. Public Speaking
2. Writing
3. Self-Management
4. Networking
5. Critical Thinking
6. Decision-Making
7. Math
8. Research
9. Relaxation
10. Basic Accounting

You realize what this guy is talking about with #5 and #6, right?

5. Critical Thinking

We are exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of times more information on a daily basis than our great-grandparents were. Being able to evaluate that information, sort the potentially valuable from the trivial, analyze its relevance and meaning, and relate it to other information is crucial – and woefully under-taught. Good critical thinking skills immediately distinguish you from the mass of people these days.

6. Decision-Making

The bridge that leads from analysis to action is effective decision-making – knowing what to do based on the information available. While not being critical can be dangerous, so too can over-analyzing, or waiting for more information before making a decision. Being able to take in the scene and respond quickly and effectively is what separates the doers from the wannabes.

He’s talking about the first triad of the nine pillars of persuasion. First pillar, second pillar and third pillar.

Fact:
The first Pillar of Persuasion. In the narrow sense, it is a Cognition that can be proven. In the broader sense as it relates to an argument between individuals who disagree, it can be an Opinion that is agreed upon by all participating in the argument, thus rendering any residual disagreement about the veracity of that opinion effectively moot.

Opinion:
Something that is Subjective. It is 1) the second Pillar of Persuasion; it can be a) a Personal Preference, b) an Inference, or a Relative Measurement. Or, it is 2) a Thing To Do.

Thing To Do:
The third Pillar of Persuasion. It is a type of Opinion that someone should do something. In some situations it can be an opinion that someone should stop doing something, or avoid doing something. It is a sign of intellectual sincerity that the thing-to-do should rest on substantiated Cognitions, but there are many reasons to conceal this: 1) laziness, 2) the party offering the thing-to-do may not wish to explain their true interests/motives, fearing this would arouse unwanted suspicion, 3) the party offering the thing-to-do may desire to conceal the cognitions upon which it rests, due to confidentiality issues, intent to deceive, or both. See Must-Tard.

His critical thinking is simply the ability to form an opinion from a fact, while knowing what you’re doing so that the opinion rests on the facts that are available, and is in some way substantiated by those facts. Decision making, in turn, is the ability to arrive at a thing-to-do from an opinion about what’s going on.

We don’t always have the luxury of conjuring up complete certainty in our opinions about what’s going on, prior to being called-upon to decide what to do. And there, in a nutshell, is the situation in which there is such a broad spread of success or lack thereof — where skill meets chance. You see it in little kids who play board games with each other. Scrabble. Battleship. Master Mind. Clue. Any time it’s your role to try to figure out what’s in a hidden panel, or in your opponent’s cards, you see kids getting better at these games as they play them more often.

I would add another one. People need to be able to understand, independently, what are to be the most likely effects or consequences of the things they do. This is important for forming a vision of what is to be done. You could think of this skill as the jumper between the third pillar that is the thing-to-do, and the fourth pillar which is the cause-and-effect argument:

Cause and Effect Argument:
The fourth Pillar of Persuasion; an observation that when certain things happen, there are reasons why certain other things will almost certainly happen as a result. Usually invoked when discussing economics and human behavior, although this isn’t always the case. “When you change the color of the walls in the factory, you have to observe what happens to productivity as a result. It will naturally increase, because when people feel they are being watched, they tend to work harder.”

I don’t want to call this skill “vision” because vision is used too often to describe people who are just plain bossy.

Think of it this way. Imagine you wake up tomorrow morning, and you are Dictator Of The Entire World. You want to be able to lift things more easily.

Any nimrod can make a law that from here on, gravity shall be half as strong. But that would be a pretty stupid law. That would demonstrate a strong vision, and a weakness in the ability to predict cause-and-effect.

A twelfth skill I would add is something I’d call bookmarking, because it is one thing to labor away at a task, and it is quite another thing to be able to walk away from the task and come back to it again, spending a minimal amount of time trying to figure out what exactly was left undone earlier. In fact, this ninth skill, relaxation, is supposed to be required for keeping your wits about you and making good decisions about things. I have found there is some truth to that, and the people who fail most resoundingly at learning how to relax, most often simply can’t let go of something before it’s finished because they don’t have confidence in their own ability to pick it up at a later time.

Update: Being a good writer and skilled critical thinker, Mr. Dustin M. Wax heads to the sidebar; and, being a pinko-commie Bush-bashing left-winger, he gets a liberal-hippie turquoise icon by his name.

Yes, it’s possible for one person to be both. Doesn’t happen often. But it does happen. And, hey, nobody’s perfect.

Shouldn’t pinkos get pink icons?

Just sayin’, ‘zall. 😉
- philmon | 08/13/2008 @ 11:17
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius…Age of Aquarius…
- mkfreeberg | 08/13/2008 @ 11:33

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Ten Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost AnythingWednesday, August 13th, 2008

Ten Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008