The Situation:
- The other person (henceforth, O) said statement ~A and statement B yesterday.
- Statement ~A is a not so good thing. Statement B is a good thing.
- In the normal scheme of things, statement ~A would lead to ~B.
- However, this is not the case here.
- Given the rather contradictory nature of the data points,
nameless_abyss and I decided that we simply needed more data points from O in order to determine which was aberrant, statement ~A or statement B.
- Unfortunately, asking for more data points straight out is very likely to irritate O, since O has tacitly indicated that the discussion is over.
- If O were irritated sufficiently, ~B would probably then be true.
Suggestion containing possibly spurious analogy to the way religion deals with things: Since the problem is a lack of balance between ~A and B (~A should lead to ~B), and ~B can be brought about by poking for more data points, I should thus poke for more data points. Trust in the power of the balance and all will be well. Yes, alllllll....
The appropriate analogies to religion can be drawn with sufficient cynicism and are left as an exercise to the reader.
- Current Mood:
amused
Comments
Not terribly much, no - I'm already planning for B, since it's been status quo for a long time. ~B would be incredibly unfortunate timing if it occurred now, but there wouldn't be much to do about it other than grump.
Fortunately, it turned out that O provided one more data point last night (without being asked) that showed ~A to be the aberrant one from before. (Well, at least for now....). So, phew.
And thank you for the empathy on the dependence issues. :)
Also, good luck keeping B and may ~A become A.
:) Rebecca
[grin] Lo, this is what I have learned from being a graduate student. Very rarely must the gory details be explained in order to give a sense of the general problem.
Also, good luck keeping B and may ~A become A.
;) Thanks. It seems that ~A has become A, so all is now well.