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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Analogy (was RE: quarantining namespaces)
 It's like that Star Trek episode... where Piccard encounters a race that communicates by analogy, whereas he, a rational logical starfleet officer relies on logic and precise rationale. The analogists whip the Enterprise's butt. They understoodd and communicated very complex concepts in very short bursts of acquired symbols and over time, that had enabled them to be precise among themselves, and vague to anyone talking to them. It had also enabled them to develop very powerful technology quickly past the phase of sharing their myths. On the surface dealing with an invisible monster, the analogical captain has to sacrifice himself so that Piccard can finally understand the danger. Had they spent more time communicating, they may have acquired a name for the monster, but they didn't. That is the risk of analogical communication. Note that this is how communities build cultures. Until we share names beyond "I know what I know if you know what I mean", analogy is one way to proceed. Consider that the semantic web will spend a lot of time in negotiation. Logic will enable them to say "this is this" not "this is that" reliably. Names won't do outside a system that refuses or cannot share those names. Analogies aren't efficient inside a system that does. "Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you." Stealers Wheel len -----Original Message----- From: Mike Champion [mailto:mc@x...] Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 3:31 PM To: xml-dev@l... Subject: Analogy (was RE: quarantining namespaces) 8/12/2002 4:19:32 PM, "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...> wrote: >Nah. Leave it as it is as an exemplar of >why programmers can't reason by analogy, >thus failing to communicate with 80% of their >customers while satisfying 20% of their >customer's requirements. I recently had to give a presentation at the annual sales meeting of a partner company. During the coffee period preceding my talk (supported by the usual PPT slides) I learned to my dismay that a hot-shot sales trainer had been in the day before and told them that one should NEVER put bullet points in a presentations, but rather to rely on images and analogies. So, analogy may be slipperier than logic (quoth Heinlein???) but it seems to be the rhetorical tool of choice for communicating with the non-nerds of the world. I'm not sure if I'm agreeing or disagreeing with Len :~) 
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