The end is nigh

So, I'm in a manglement class today. To illustrate how
difficult it can be to convince other people, they gave us an exercise.
Ignoring everything else:

BUY HOUSE AT $260,000
SELL HOUSE AT $270,000
BUY HOUSE AT $280,000
SELL HOUSE AT $290,000

They had 22 of us look at that for 1 minute. Then, they had us
congregate under 3 signs:

Made money
Break even
Lost money

There were 9 people in the "Made money" section. The rest in
"Break even". Of the "Made money" section, 6 were in $20k, 3 were in
$10k profit.

Then, they gave us 1 min to convince each other why we're right.
I, of course, convinced one person to join my cult. Unfortunately, the
$10k folks lost one, and our group lost 2, so we had a total of 7 people
who were in the "Made money" group.

Then, we had another session where we had to go understand the
other person's viewpoint. I kept asking why must I understand a wrong
position - actually, I know how they got there, but they're wrong, and
why must I entertain them. But that's not the purpose of the exercise
you see. I kept saying now I understand why people vote the way they
vote, and no wonder the country is the way it is. The rest of my group
were quite PC, and didn't take bait, only snickered whenever I mouthed
off.

Now, we end up with 2 people in the "Made money - $30k" group!
6 or 7 in the $20k group, and 2 in the $10k group. The rest were in the
"Break even" group.

Then, the presenter mentioned that typically accountants do well
here, but then mused that at a national EY conference, there was still a
large bunch of folks who were spread all over the place.

No wonder things are so fucked up. I fear for the future of my
kids.

-Tai
--
http://www.vcnet.com/bms/features/serendipities.html
http://www.kenthamilton.net/humor/humor.html
http://www.despair.com/demotivators/cluelessness.html
"What we have done with PCs so far is not natural" - Craig Mundie, CTO Microsoft
.

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