LO=sugar on bitter pill LO5960

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@compuserve.com)
03 Mar 96 00:40:53 EST

Replying to LO5939 --

Julie is right -- I overreacted when I said Burgoyne is pushing an
unsubstantiated agenda. The sentence should read, 'Is he abusing the use
of language? In my opinion, yes.'

He says there is "considerable evidence..." Perhaps he has cited it, but
I am unaware of it. In the absence of the evidence, my opinion remains
unchanged.

I agree with Julie that stories are very important. It is through stories
that we detect possible patterns for further research. Stories can be the
beginning of science.

The danger of stories is that they are not balanced. The downsizing
discussion on this LO is an excellent example. We read 'stories' in the
newspaper all the time about companies downsizing. One could conclude
that masses of people are out of jobs in the US as a consequence. The
reality is quite different. Using the newspaper as a scientific journal
often leads to misconceptions. If someone were to say "I have seen
examples..." I would not argue with that. I think examples are important.
When someone says, "there is considerable evidence..." I, for one, expect
a higher standard than 'stories' and he didn't meet it. This kind of
misuse of language is disappointing to say the least.

--

Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>