Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Take these lines from Hector Macdonald’s book, Truth: How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality : “On most issues, there are multiple truths we can choose to communicate.” Your instinctive reaction was either disgust at the everything-is-grey stance or a resigned it’s-not-true-but-this-seems-to-be-the-common-belief-these-days shrug. But wait, and consider all the too common scenario where a company has to drastically change the way it operates. The need can (truthfully) be presented in two ways, writes Macdonald: 1)       “Golden opportunity”: Incredible potential, money to be made etc; 2)      “Burning platform”: Either we change or we perish. Both reasons are probably true in such cases, but they leave very different impressions in the minds of employees (excitement v fear). So managers rarely go for the balanced both-reasons-apply presentation; they go with only one truth based on which incentive would work bette...

During the 9/11 attacks, one of the hijacked planes, Flight 93, failed to achieve its mission. Why? Because the passengers, having gotten wind of what had been done with the other planes, charged into the cockpit and brought down the plane. While Trump and Clinton were still campaigning last year, one blogger wrote wrote that Clinton would take the country “off a cliff”. Therefore, he urged : “2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die.” Now, of course, the boot is on the other foot. Anti-Trump campaigns are based on the same fear of Trump destroying “everything”. Everything? , snorts Alan Jacobs. He rightly calls out the rampant exaggeration on both sides: “This absolutizing of fright reminds me of the expanding scope of disasters in superhero comics and movies: People will die! — no wait, a  whole city  will be destroyed! — A city? Small stuff. The  planet  will be vaporized! — A mere planet? The  universe  will disappear in...

Before I start, let me state that this blog isn’t to justify or encourage lieing. That said, let me proceed. When disgusted with the repeated deception and lies of certain people, many people often wonder whether that bunch totally lacks any sense of right and wrong. But let’s face it: most people aren’t that amoral or immoral. So why then do they still lie? Part of the answer is in these lines from Grey’s Anatomy : “No matter how hard we try to ignore or deny it, eventually the lies fall away, whether we like it or not. But here’s the truth about the truth: It hurts. So we lie.” That’s certainly true: faced with the choice between doing what’s right and what’s easy, people often take the easy way. Now step back and you’ll notice that the phrase doesn’t say “what’s right and what’s wrong ”, instead it says “what’s right and what’s easy ”. And that is the key: very few say to themselves, “I am going to lie”. Usually, they’re taking the easy way out when they lie. So...