We’ve known for a long time that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, but we tend to forget the wide variety of ways the saying applies. When we recognize that everything is “information,” we can begin to notice what is “high-quality” information and what information is of lower quality. The higher the quality, the greater the likelihood that the information will prove true over time. A pudding that looks really good, for example, may not taste as good as it looks. The food you see advertised on TV, is typically not edible. It’s made to look good . . . → Read More: Actions Speak Louder than Words
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 Comments are closed  Blog  actions, automobiles, behavior, camera, computers, cynicism, Einstein, election, election cycle, feedback, high quality, House, information, insanity, issues, negative advertising, opposition advertising, political, politicians, politics, promises, proof, pudding, results, Senate, silly season, special interests, time, TV advertising, vested interest, voter, voters, voting, words (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’)); In a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post (Liberals and conservatives don’t just vote differently. They think differently.), Chris Mooney addressed some of the reasons the differences between liberals and conservatives have become so acrimonious over the past few election cycles. According to Mooney, “There’s now a large body of evidence showing that those who opt for the political left and those who opt for the political right tend to process information . . . → Read More: Possibilities and Necessities Comments are closed Blog "other", abortion, Chris Mooney, conflict, conservatives, conversation, cultural dynamics, different drummers, discovery, Eve, exploration, failed, forgiveness, George Lakoff, Gomorrah, Greek myth, job-killing, Liberals, Muslim, NLP, nurturant parent, Obama, Pandora, perdition, political, punishment, reality, reckless agenda, Republican Party, self-reliance, self-responsibility, sexuality, sin, slavery, slaves, social degeneration, Sodom, straight and narrow, strict father, strict rules, talking points, transgressions, Washington Post, women When President Obama announced his new plans for improving the economy in the States, Republicans cried, “Class warfare!” Obama’s response was, “It is not class warfare—it’s math.” This response not only reminded me of Nixon’s infamous claim, “I am not a crook,” but also reminded me of George Lakoff’s warning against using your opponent’s frame in your counterarguments (see Framing—Again. It is a failure to remember the Don’t think of elephants rule. When Nixon said, “I am not a crook,” the connection made in most people’s minds was, “Nixon—crook.” The not gets lost in translation. In addressing the issue . . . → Read More: Elephants, Crooks, and Class Warfare Comments are closed Blog burrito, campaign, class warfare, Connirae Andreas, Democrats, dialog, don't look now, don't walk, frame, framing, French revolution, George Lakoff, Hayakawa, Lakoff, negative commands, negative language, negativity, Nixon, not a crook, Obama, political, politics, reframing, Reign of Terror, Republicans, TV, war, warfare, what is, what is not, Yogi Berra With apologies to the Beatles and “A Day in the Life”: One of my daily habits is reading through the major online news sources to get a sense of what is happening here in the U.S. and in the world. I often find it fascinating to see what subjects are drawing the most media attention—and the kind of attention they are attracting. Here’s a brief round-up of recent “stuff”: Placebos are in the news (again): One of the things I find most interesting about placebos is that articles about them written by medical doctors studiously avoid the word . . . → Read More: I Read the News Today (Oh, Boy) Comments are closed Blog A Day in the Life, advertising, Beatles, belief, Chicago, corrupts, debt, deficit, Detroit, economy, evidence, experience, fiscal, history, hotel maid, hypnosis, IMF, Internet, John Edwards, Korzybski, lamestream, leaders, Lord Acton, map, media, men, metamodel, news, NLP, placebos, platitudes, political, politicians, politics, power, primaries, pundits, question, reality, Republican, Sarah Palin, scandal, Schwartzeneger, talking points, tax rates, taxation, taxes, territory, TV, Twitter, U.S., unemployment, Weiner Those of you who have studied NLP or persuasive communication are familiar with the concept of perceptual frames. The metaphor is fairly obvious: a window frame, for example, limits what we see on the other side of the window; a photographer can choose what is included in the frame of a photo by trimming the image so that it focuses on, say, one person instead of a group. The concept has been adopted by psychology for the purpose of understanding the context that determines how something is interpreted. All communication (all? Yes, all…) occurs within a contextual frame. In . . . → Read More: Framing and Reframing Comments are closed Blog beliefs, big picture, chunking, communication, context, contextual frame, culture, delayed gratification, down, framing, history, lateral, maturity, metaphor, NLP, perception, persuasion, political, politics, reframing, specific detail, time, time-frame, up |
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Metaphors We Die By (and For)
Way back in the pre-Internet days of 1980, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published Metaphors We Live By. This landmark study of the metaphors we use in daily conversations illustrates the ways common metaphors shape our thinking and behavior. One of the examples often cited is “argument is war.” Ideas are attacked, defended, and shot down. We may even “destroy” someone’s theory or “kill” his or her idea.
A few weeks ago, while watching political commentary on TV, it occurred to me that we not only live by metaphors, but also die by them. This is a broader, and . . . → Read More: Metaphors We Die By (and For)
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