A mate of mine shared some thoughts on wisdom he’d read in an Economist article with me and another mutual friend.
The interchange that followed was hilarious and quite instructive. What follows is a tidied up version of the email flow…
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Hi Dave and Ant,
I read about the 5 crucial aspects of wise reasoning and thought you’d be interested:
- Willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict
- Willingness to search for compromise
- Recognition of the limits of personal knowledge
- Awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist
- Appreciation of the fact that things may get worse before they get better
From Josh
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Shut up Josh. This is rubbish and I'm not bending on it. And not just because I'm obviously always right, but also because everyone else is always obviously wrong.
Oh well, at least your next mail can only be more insightful.
Antony
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Hi Ant,
- I do hope we can resolve your angst. When would be a good time?
- I’m not saying you should agree with everything. I hope we can meet somewhere halfway
- Because I don’t know everything and I suspect that the research has some limitations too
- I’d love to hear your view.
- I understand that this email may make you more angry but I am sure that we’ll pull though.
From Dave
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Answers attached…
- Ant, I do hope we can resolve your angst. When would be a good time? I don't have time. I'm too clever
- I’m not saying you should agree with everything. I hope we can meet somewhere halfway. That would require me to bend
- Because I don’t know everything and I suspect that the research has some limitations too. The only limitations are others' appreciation of my cleverness
- I’d love to hear your view. I'm not sure you'd understand
- I understand that this email may make you more angry but I am sure that we’ll pull though. You don't get angry when you're this clever
Antony
