Anonymous Canine

The Importance of Communication

Three important quotes:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent." - John Donne

This one deals with the idea that nobody is ever truly alone. Humans are social creatures. They don't function well without interaction with other creatures. As a result, in order to function well with humans, one must be skilled in the simple, yet sometimes overlooked skill of communication. All too often, humans themselves overlook this, and fail to communicate well with one another. Most often this comes in the form of assuming certain ideas have been communicated without truly ensuring that it has.

There's one very very simple way of doing this. Be blunt. If you want to express idea A, don't express ideas B and C in the hopes that the person will realize you are thinking about A. Say it! Say it bluntly! If you say A, then nobody can claim they didn't realize that's what you meant.

The world would be a better place if people were more open about what they thought.

"people are people because of other people" - Saying of Shona People of South Africa

This is similar to the previous quote. The idea is that people are not defined in and of themselves. You are defined by your interactions with others. Who do you keep close as friends? Who to you consider your pack members? Who do you avoid? People are defined by other people. Nobody is a person in and of themselves.

"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein

This one has a very simple purpose. The previous two quotes were serious. And I figured I'd amuse myself with a bikini image. Really though, the idea ties in with the idea of what about yourself do you show others? What do you hide? (Yeah, I know I'm stretching here).

Oh, and people need to learn to understand math, or they may never realize the beauty of what's hidden behind the statistics/bikini.

posted by AnonymousCanine @ 4/26/2005 12:15:00 AM