If you want people to think what you think, you can’t say what you think.

Someone mentioned this in a lecture today and I thought it was very profound. The idea behind this quote is that when we want to let someone know ‘what’s on our mind’, the most intuitive tact would be to gather our thoughts and say clearly and slowly, with emphasis, what we think.

 The recipient of our message then interprets it differently and our message is lost.

 The suggested tact would be to ask questions so that your recipient comes to ‘what you’re thinking’ on their own. Yes, Socrates figured it out a long time ago.

~ by apivat on January 24, 2008.