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Old 06-07-2005, 08:38 AM   #6 (permalink)
abaya
 
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Location: Iceland
"They won't care what you know, until they know that you care." No one will care whether or not your facts are right, if it sounds like you THINK you know better than them. This is regardless of whether or not you are actually right.

Take for example a group of high schoolers. I bring up this example because it was one I faced daily for a period of time, when I was a teacher. Their bullshit detectors are 100% accurate... not necessarily about whether my facts were right, but about whether or not I was some abstract intellectual who was going to lecture them; or if I genuinely cared for them and would listen to their experiences, right or wrong. Empathy and rapport, I found, were much better teachers than mere presentation of facts.

At the risk of sounding like I Am Right: through my own mistakes, I've learned that intelligence isn't about "teaching" people. It's about knowing the right time and place for truth. Sometimes, people just do not want the truth, and it is not your job as a common person to force it on them.

Now, if they ask for advice, or if your official job is one of a teacher or boss, then that's something else. Then you are given authority of some kind to share knowledge.
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