Re: Criticism??

[David_Davis@mail.bankone.com]

You obviously must be right that I'm wasting my time trying to understand.
     I don't see how a roll of dice will determine individual or human behavior.
     I don't see how (even if I could find 100 cats and get them hitched to a
piano) a whip or bag of catnip
          relates to an individual's behavior.

I've read B.F. Skinner and understand behavioral modification. I understand
that, given no other option than to
reward or punish, rewards will in most cases be better than punishment. Having
said that - individuals are different.

Using simple analogies to explain complex cause and effect relationship is what
we've been taught in most schools
and what most politicians want us to believe 'fits' the world. Scott Peck in The
Road Less Traveled and Beyond
points out the fallacy of this approach and its allure. It is hard work to try
to understand individuals. It is easy work
to create an analogy and say 'see, this is what you ought to do'.

Perhaps H.L. Menchen said it most succinctly:
     "For every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong."

Wasting my time.
Dave Davis
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In a message dated 11/2/2000 12:51:10 PM Eastern Standard Time,
David_Davis@mail.bankone.com writes:


> This is great, I can reduce all my interactions with people to rolling dice.
>
> This will save a lot of time that I used to spend trying to derive intrinsic
> motivations and external motivators -
>
To be perfectly honest, if you don't understand why the dice exercise works,
you really are wasting your time.
Try thinking about this problem and see if it helps:
If you had to move a piano up a flight of stairs, one way might be to hitch a
few hundred cats to it. Which motivator would you choose:
- A big whip, or
- A large bag of catnip?

GrantBlair@aol.com
Ninety Six SC


In a message dated 11/2/2000 12:51:10 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
David_Davis@mail.bankone.com writes:


> This is great, I can reduce all my interactions with people to rolling dice.
>
> This will save a lot of time that I used to spend trying to derive intrinsic
> motivations and external motivators -

To be perfectly honest, if you don't understand why the dice exercise works, 
you really are wasting your time.
Try thinking about this problem and see if it helps:
If you had to move a piano up a flight of stairs, one way might be to hitch a 
few hundred cats to it. Which motivator would you choose:
- A big whip, or
- A large bag of catnip?

GrantBlair@aol.com
Ninety Six SC