Side Street Journal Editorial Sunday 26 June 2011

Facts v. Opinions

Sometimes we want to hear opinions.  Food, clothing, music.  Sometimes we need to hear the facts.  121 degrees centigrade at 15 psi for 15 minutes.

De gustibus non est disputandum.  Taste is not a matter for dispute.  This can also suggest taste is not a matter for discussion.  Some people don’t want to talk about it.  Why not?  They don’t want to talk about that either.

From The Quotations of Slim Fairview

“Why do they want to talk about it?  To convince us to do things their way. Why? We don’t try to bully them into doing things our way.”

“It’s Important!” 

“Everything is important to the person making a profit from it.”

Years ago, my Dad taught me, “No one agrees with someone else’s opinion.  Only his own opinion expressed by someone else.”

I updated that.

“Don’t bother asking me.  You don’t want to hear my opinion.  You want to hear your opinion.”

This leads us to:

“Some people ask questions seeking information.  Other people ask questions so they can interrupt, argue, and pretend they’re right.”

Well, it would seem that there is as much contention regarding facts as there is regarding opinions.

I’ve decided to fall back on the metaphor.

Facts v. Opinions

There are facts and there are opinions. On the other hand, there are facts and there are facts. Here's the metaphor:

A group of wonderful people are going to rehabilitate a 16 unit building in a fancy neighborhood. You know: SoHo, NoHo, BooHoo, one of those places. They invite 16 interior designers (one unit each) to do a complete makeover. Wall treatments, window treatments, floor covering, furniture, accessories, and so on.

Now, the night before the big unveiling, (when no one is around to get hurt) the building collapses. Everyone hurries down to stare (aghast) at the site. There, with his political wisdom and insight, Mayor Bloomberg calls Donald Trump and asks him to come down and take a look at what happened. Upon his arrival, Mr. Trump asks to see the blueprints. The city engineer shows Mr. Trump the blueprints. Mr. Trump shakes his head.

"This is no good," he says. "Supporting walls were removed. New walls were not able to support the upper floors. The floors that were replaced were not structurally sound. The wonderful people who rehabilitated this building should have called me in first to check the plans and make sure the building wouldn't fall down."

What a shame. All those beautiful opinions and no facts. Well, not quite.

• The fact is, the designers were all brilliant and creative.
• The fact is, all the window treatments, floor treatments, wall treatments were tasteful and done with products known to be of the highest quality.
• The fact is, the furniture was tasteful, expensive, elegant.
• And so on.

All facts. None related to the structural integrity of the building.

The argument could be made that the interior design was actually a matter of opinion; what cannot be argued is that the structural soundness of the building was not a matter of opinion. It was a matter of facts not taken into consideration. (Evidenced by the fact that the building collapsed.)

The ability of a manager to filter out the opinions from the facts when dealing with issues is important. Just as crucial is having employees who can differentiate between facts and opinions. Not having opinions included can cause hurt feelings. However, we are not decorating an apartment. We are working to make sure the building does not fall down.

Regards,

Slim

PS. Paul Harvey I am not.  Still, I am open to becoming a paid blogger, columnist, or commentator.  In the meantime, if anyone find my blogs to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me on of those tricked out Apple laptops and tuck a few dollars into the envelope with the thank you note.

Sincerest regards, 

Slim

Mail slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Slim Fairview