[Ticket#: 2006040510000641] Re: [OT] Articles to read

[Bob Warren]

The last thing I want to do today, particularly after my personal 
experiences of yesterday not connected with this list, is to get mixed 
up in psychological analyses. But in view of the fact that certain 
analyses have been made based my recent posts and the List's reactions 
to them, I would just like to say a few words that think might be 
appropriate.

I have lived in Brazil for more than half my life, and one of the first 
things I had to learn early on was that cultural attitudes towards the 
truth can be very different. For example, in England, we expect a doctor 
always to tell us the truth about our diagnosis, and if he doesn't do 
that, he can even get sued for it. So if a cancer patient has two weeks 
to live, the doctor says "You have two weeks to live", and that's that. 
In Brazil, this would be considered by many doctors to be unethical. 
After all, if the poor patient really does have only two weeks to live, 
what right does the doctor have to spoil the last 2 weeks of the 
patient's life?

What I am trying to say is that although the truth is of fundamental 
importance, it is not always wise to go around hitting people over the 
head with it. The main reason is that it tends to create symmetrical 
relationships and the eventual polarization expressed far too often in 
the form of war. More complementary relationships are needed in this 
warring world of ours, and consequently on this List.

Although the fundamental purpose of this list is to discuss technical 
issues, the fact that we are drawn into arguments about questions of 
management, and even of individual personalities, is inevitable. 
However, on this occasion I have been extremly gratified to see that the 
situation has not got completely and utterly out of hand, as it has 
sometimes done on previous occasions.

One of the fundamental guiding principles I try to use (but sometimes 
fail in using adequately, I admit) is that ALL ideas are valuable, 
including the ones we might initially disagree with or find obnoxious.
Or in other words, it is more important to attempt to use the creative 
potential of a wrong idea than to abandon it. The theory of "lateral" 
thinking and psychology is easy, but the practice of it can take years 
of dedication and perhaps education.

That's all. Now let's get back to the technicalities of computer 
programming, until the next punchup, which we all enjoy as long as we 
don't get hurt too much!

Regards to all,
Bob Warren