Why does man crave authority? Why does man crave certainty? These two questions seem to be the restatement of a single human desire: security. We all crave security in various forms. Few can feel any long term happiness without it. Our longing for the known can drive reasonable men to very unreasonable actions. I have witnessed countless times otherwise sane persons throw all intellectual integrity to the wind for the simple illusion of security found through claims of certainty.
Want to influence men? Want to persuade others? Deal in certainty. Sell security as your commodity. Provide confidence in claims, guarantee your promises, and smile without flinching. How many times have we seen hucksters one job ahead of the curve, one promotion away from all their failed promises.? No one seems to remember long. Those around them simply eat up the certainty like candy and care less that the claims didn't pan out than that they were made with certainty and authority.
The selection bias provides us with our historical winners. Make enough authoritative claims and a few will turn out to be true. If you are lucky, you may even go down in history as a great visionary.
This works for blogging, the workplace, and especially in personal relationships. Go forth, provide authority, and make snap decisions with absolute confidence! You will be materially better off, and who can fathom the cost or currency of the soul?
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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1 comments:
Let's start with certainty.
I personally have always struggled with the certainty demanded by others, especially in the workplace. For some reason the manager doesn't like to hear in response to a familiar demand, "I can't guarantee I exist, but I believe the report should be done by 4pm."
However, is my stereotypical manager really any different than you or me? How can they honestly believe a non omnipotent being can provide certainty of a paper being done at 4pm (or anything else for that matter)? Thus, perhaps the certainty they require of us (and greater world) may just be their choice of language and their meta dialog carries similar qualifications on certainty that we may overtly state. For example, perhaps when an average person says, "I guarantee the status report will be on your desk by 4pm" the manager is really hearing, "I will do all in my power to get the report on your desk by 4pm and I am reasonably confident I can achieve this." And, in contrast my statement above would sound like, "I doubt I can meet any deadline you set" because they are accustomed to the meta dialog qualifications existing on all statements.
If this is the case the sale of certainty is nothing more than just communication in the commonly palpable language. This doesn't mean that one could not use this pleasing language to swindle someone. The silver tongue thief's tongue must be silver by definition and so of course it must come in a palpable medium.
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