I have carefully read the many emails that have so recently occupied much
of the space, time, and attention of this discussion group. I'd like to
make a personal observation, now that much of the heat has gone away.
I found the discussions illuminating. Even the violent and intemperate
disagreements. They caused me to rethink many of my own beliefs, especially
those subconscious assumptions that i wasn't even aware that I held.
It is all too easy to believe that one's beliefs are the correct ones and
that opposing ones are misguided, wrong, or ignorant. Unfortunately, when I
think of my own unstated assumptions, i find that many of those terms are
uncomfortably accurate when applied to my understandings.
So thank you, all of you (well, most of you), for stating your issues. Did
they make some of us uncomfortable? Yes -- which is precisely how they
should have made us feel.
The emotions displayed simply pointed to the strength of the beliefs. That
doesn't mean that the emotions were justified, but if looked at from a
distance, they are informative. All of them.
Don
*Postscript:* I learn far more from people who disagree with me than from
people who agree. Disagreements point out holes and errors in my beliefs
and thought. I often come to agree with the disagreement, or at least to
modify my understanding. And even when I beleive the disagreements to be
wrong, I use them as a way of clarifying the way i describe my ideas: if
someone disagrees with me for reasons that I believe show misunderstandings
of my message, then it means my message is faulty and needs reworking. So I
always learn.
Please keep disagreeing with me -- and with others on this list.
Disagreements can be civil. The purpose of a disagreement is to foster
discussion, to lead to reflection and advances in understanding.
Don Norman
Prof. and Director, DesignLab, UC San Diego
[log in to unmask] designlab.ucsd.edu/ www.jnd.org <http://www.jnd.org/>
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