Gullibility in Action or Gullibility Inaction?

A 'Thankyou' shout to Rednose (check out his recent posts on Reality TV) for flagging up the example of Green Washing as a case of Gullibility in action. Here we have the idea that corporations claim 'green' credentials by 'painting' an image of their activities with a green hue. The opposite claim is that the reality (whatever that is)is bathed in a murkier hue.

This is a classic case of the need to 'unpack', 'surface', hidden assumptions because unless we have a grasp of where people are coming from then we can't sensibly look out for their bias.

As you will know, Mandy Rice Davies was wise enough to be aware of the WIFM (Whats in it for me) Factor, (WOW what a great name for a TV Show!) which is something that applies to the investigation of all human affairs and wether we can ever really get at the objective 'truth' of the matter.

I guess the point is...how do we know?

Sticks and Stones are...ontologically real, but names are epistemolgically variable.

Gullible Chefs Cook Up Trouble

A new article cooked up on the BBC News Magazine got me thinking about Ambition - Capability Gap and its role in Gullibility

Looks like we have a few choice Gullibility ingredients on the menu here:

i) Not thinking things through - a terrine of thought from Peter Drucker 'the problem with good ideas is that they quickly de-generate into hard work'...(aaahhhh that explains my blog-angst then too LOL)


ii) Deletion - a delicate omission of key factors including pot washing, ungrateful customers, drizzled with stress from wondering when the next customer is coming through the door


iii) Distortion - the finest twisting of belief that when I'm in a restaurant I have a great time (social context) into when it's my living I'll have a great time too!

...and to finish...

iv) lack of business sophistication and complete lack of understanding about what a restaurant 'does'(i.e a place to socialise in the broadest sense ) for the customer rather than thinking too much about it's about what it 'is' (i.e. a place to eat)


My Recipe
Want to become a Chef and run a succesful restaurant?

i) study consumer psychology and behaviour
ii)understand the role and application of 'segementation' (esp.life styles and attitudes)
iii) understand revenue models and work out realistic profit scenarios
iv) know your competitors and track them
v) study retail marketing and understand Bid rent theory, catchment zones and service -scape (Mary Jo Bitner)


Alternative recipe - courtesy of son number 2:

i) join parachute regiment for 6 years
ii)join SAS
iii) capture Osama Bin Laden and collect bounty
iv) retire from army and set up restaurant in Cyprus

Your thoughts on the nature/nature debate and the influence of Paternal Genes and Offspring Career Paths to:

Reasonable Robinson Head Chef c/o Exasperation - Fine Dining - with a university of life twist... England, Englandshire)

Labradoodle triggers Gullibility gene in humans

image credits labradoodles-australia.com

Those of you who read my recent post about Tamba the Bengal cat going missing will no doubt be amazed at the following development. Gullibility 'newbies' are advised to secure lower jaw with a headscarf or palm of hand in order to prevent chin hitting the floor at 1000 mph!

My neighbour (who works full time and travels the country with her sales job) knocked on the door last night to introduce her new pet. Not a stick insect, goldfish, or hamster but a brand new labradoodle puppy. (are there such things as Poodadors btw?)


Now I'm not the most 'pet aware' bloke on the planet, and I'm sure that the little tike will need large amounts of attention, walking three times a day etc etc. What might be the explanation for such self-indulgent neighbourly behaviour?

So...might the post modern, social constructivist in you will be saying things such as:

Its clearly a bereavement response that needs compassion and understanding

We should not judge the actions of others as there are different voices and all voices are equivalent

This action is merely one social discourse in a fabric of historically and culturally located context and is therefore approriate in the micro-context of sub-urban Britain

Or...

maybe my neighbour just needs a bucket of cold water to wake her up?

Systemic Solution?

Don't rescue neighbour from her responsibilities (look after dog when she's out) in order that long term consequences of spontaneous decsions are recognised.

Woof woof

Naming and Faming

People say there is nothing stranger than the truth. Which is an interesting thought really (if you think about it) that anything normal can't be true.

I'm still trying to work out if I've been 'gulled' by friends at work with this one.

We were discussing students who have dropped out and a Korean student Sang Song had left...to take up music instead of international business...

Now, take it from me, having recently had a Chinese student called Foo Lin Yoo (honestly!!) nothing is stranger than the truth!

I wonder if Robinson translates as something in another language...probably amazingly witty and talented? or jingoistic and humourless? or person who steals from offspring?

10 Reasons Why You Should Be Curious

This blog makes the interesting claim that being curious will enable you to discover the Truth ...hmmmmm... the authors ask...Do you want a rewarding life? Then be curious. The more curious you are, the more possibilities you will open throughout your lifetime. Open your eyes and look around. How many blind assumptions have you made? What do you want to know more about?

read more | digg story

We can check out but we can never leave

Logging into the BBC web site today and there are at least 3 headline stories involving shootings in the UK.

Yep, that's UK, Britain, land of Robin Hood, Castles, The Queen, quaint pubs and warm beer.

It is natural, as you will know, to try and make sense of all of this , especially the 'Gears of Waresque' child on child killings. The nature nurture debate rages and for an intelligent discussion I would recommend The Blank Slate written by Steven Pinker.

Just how Gullible has UK society become to underestimate the complexity and subtly of what is happening? To deny that violent games, where you can now 'chat as you kill', 'taunt and abuse as you cleave, chop, and massacre' have 'no' influence is to deny reality. The consequence free world of 'gaming' (sic) will have sub-conscious impacts beyond the superficial PR of sections of the games and music industry.

And the dividing line between reality and fantasy? My son's girlfriend recieved a threatening e-mail after beating a male opponent in an on-line game...The whole thing is 'real', we don't have an hermetically sealed 'world of games' and 'world of reality' - we have one reality.

She must be Barking!

Folks, this has to get the Gullibility August 2007 award, and could well be contender for the 2007 Gull of the Year Award. (Hmmm must set up the competition and publicise)

Not since my Dad convinced my college friends that he was a belly gunner in a Lancaster bomber during WW2, have I chortled at such a 'wind-up' (Dad wasn't even in his teens during the war lol)

Amuse yourself with thisNeed a Good Belly Laugh

Why not send over your 'pet food spoof diets'! for starters I've tried the Fish Food diet, its amazing, you stuff your face full of cream cakes and simply forget you ate them 2 seconds later...look in the mirror and see how much weight you've piled on and yes, 2 seconds later you forget how 'heavy' you look.

Philosophically speaking I'm intrigued, of course, as to how someone could come to believe in such as thing as a Purina Diet based purely on testimony and a lack of empirical evidence.

Just to confirm my Noble Heritage

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lord Robinson the Paragon of Wimblish upon Frognaze Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Thanks to Peculiar Aristocratic Title discovered on the illustrious blog of Countess-Palatine Mary Zephenelle the Potential of Lardle Midhoop

Is Russia Researching Mind Control?

'Psychotronic' Weapons Could Be in our Future -- says Washington Post. NOW WHO'S GETTIN BRAINWASHED?Following the link suggestion from Daddy Papersurfer - here its is! Hmmm...a retail opportunity? bubble bath for the brain?

read more | digg story

PRAVDA claims Russians Have Psychotronic Weapon To Zombie People

You'll know, of course, that PRAVDA is Russian for Truth. Until the mid-1980s secret centers for investigation of psychic impact upon humans were working in large cities of the country under the KGB’s patronage.

read more | digg story

Gullibilty Flashback - Flour Power

image credits appletothecore

Remembering where I was the night Elvis died caused a sudden Gullibility Flashback. As I mentioned I was working in a pie factory, a Pork Pie factory to be exact.

On the night shift it was customary to dissapear to the first aid room and catch 40 winks! You can imagine my shock when one morning the factory manager came in and asked who had been sleeping in the room as nobody had ever been caught before.

I denied it, of course, but found it hard to keep up the pretence when he showed me the bed. My job was in the 'pastry room' and so I got covered head to foot in flour. Gullible young me didn't realise that when I got up off the bed I left a perfect RR shape as evidence!!

The ultimate punishment in this twilight zone of a factory was to be banished to the 'jelly room'...nope not a room with wobbly walls, but the place where you filled the pies with a glycerine jelly to protect the meat...20,0000 squirts as day and you never sleep in the First Aid room again.

I got Stung - Elvis Presley

...we got stung

Elvis fan worked in pie factory

I can't belive it...30!? years ago tonight I was workin night shift as a student in a Pie factory in the UK. There were three of us, me a Cliff Richard fanatic and an Elvis fan.

The Elvis fan turned up late and broke two pieces of news...1 The King was dead and 2 he had a fight with somebody who had insulted Elvis' memory and killed them!

Now being gullible we didn't think to ask why he wasn't in jail, and accepted it as a perfectly valid reason for 'being late' (doh!)...and the real reason he was late? it had nothing to do with stopping for an extra pint at the pub before starting his shift of course!

The Cliff fan, who normally argued with the Elvis fan about who was the best artist kept very quiet...looks like we got stung!

Paws for Thought

Well, sad to say my neighbour's Bengal cat Tamba wasn't found yesterday despite (even though I say it myself)my brilliant idea of calling in a specialist 'sniffer' dog.

We found our man by calling around the local police and even at one point got through to the Ministry of Defence!! "We don't think our dogs are suited" they politely advised, "They are typically used to find people...and bite them!"

So, here we have a case of not examining of "Total Cost of Ownership" prior to purchase. We've all been way down the experience curve on that one! Remember your first car only $200 / £150...2 gallons of petrol...oh! and I have to get it insured and taxed!...can't you help with that Dad.

Total Cost of Ownership = both hard and soft 'costs'


Bengal Cat - £1500
Cat Food - £10 per week (less if cat visits neighbours and eats their cat food)
Vets Fees - £150 p.a.
Cat Insurance £300 p.a.
Sniffer Dog - £500 for 4 hours

Emotional Distress cumulatively 5 days to date
Calling in favours from neighbours - priceless
Intellectual Energy spent speculating on possible reasons for dissapearance and where Tamba is now...1,000,000 kilo joules an hour
Social Credibility Loss - modest, although more evidence of future 'paws for thought' would enhance image

Naturally this all has to weighed against 'benefit' and we arrive at some sort of Value, and so the 'benefits' of owning a special breed cat are?

Furry Friend
Animal welfare
Status symbol
Whim satisfier
Talking Point
Interest generator

the cat-alouge could be quite extensive...

1 Way to find the Best Blog in the World

When you get the chance make sure you visit Your Relevant this is a great site that provides objective snappy reviews of blogs. Maybe they'll correspond to your views too!

2 Ways to Decide the Number 1 Blog in the World

So, which is the Number One blog in the world and perhaps more importantly who says so?


Fuel, Fame, Authority, Vote...have you stopped to consider the assumptions you might be making about the truth of the assessment?

Social networking is based on a particular view of the 'truth' which favours what is known as The Consensus Theory of Truth This means that the more people who agree on the same interpretation the more 'true' it is. You can clearly see how useful this is if you wish to start 'mob rule', a 'fad', or even a 'cult'. If 1,000,000 people think the moon is made of green cheese - then clearly it must be!

The alternative is to lean towards a Correspondence theory of 'truth' which assumes that there is an independent, objective, singular and authoritative assessment of the 'truth' of the matter. Such that...it is 'fact' that this blog is brilliant and that blog is utter rubbish. Blogging to Blame is clearly the best blog in the world.

The exploration of 'what is truth' does get more refined than this, of course,and this just serves as a 'heads up'

So, Life hacks, and Personal blogs on the consensus side, and natural science and technology blogs on the other..I'll leave that one with you LOL.

What is the point of this post then?...Well, it was triggered when I was reading Why Truth Matters (Benson Stangroom) and was struck by the fact a good percentage of my posts are just 'my opinion'. This got me thinking what does my blog 'do' for anyone? It doesn't tell you how to fix the TV, cook a meal, or wrestle an alligator, it's just lots of 'opinion' that you can take or leave as 'true'. So what earthly 'use' is that?

Benson and Strongroom say:

"We don't love the truth...We reserve the right, most of us, to accept some truths but reject others, no matter how well warranted, how supported by evidence, how tightly argued"

going on to quote Jamie Whyte from his book Crimes Against Logic:

..."many people are not really interested in believing the truth...if their opinion turns out to be true that would be the icing on the cake...and to register this...they declare..'I'm entitled to my opinion'. Once you hear these words you should realise that is is simple rudeness to persist with the matter. You may be interested in wether or not their opinion is true, but take the hint, they aren't.

If we can't get at the truth through social networking... is blogging to blame?

Cats and Consequences

Two days ago my neighbour lost her Bengal Cat. I realise this is a devasting event for any pet owner. Nevertheless it seems to me that a critical aspect of Gullibility is failing to think through the consequences of actions and decisions. As you might know, Bengal's are an expensive and prized breed. My friend is a full time professional who allows the cat to roam around whilst she is working away from home.

I find it puzzling that she is suprised that her laisser faire approach to Tamba might have something to do with the dissapearance. How come this possibility wasn't thought through?

Connecting this to business Neil Rackham in SPIN selling makes the astute observation that the people to get in front of when selling something are those that deal in the world of implications the world where you ask, so what might happen if...

Now this isn't an argument for procrastinating, merely a suggestion that you can avoid cat-astrophes if you stop and think or even paws for thought.

Re: Gullible is not in the Dictionary

Her first comment is actually a quote from Socrates wandering around the marketplace according to Plato. The vernacular, is, of course ALG's way of making this high brow stuff accessible to today's youth!

Gullible is not in the Dictionary

I should have known...how gullible am I...here AngryLittleGirl tells it how it is...

You never learn if you don't give things a try

Well... here goes...

You might want to check this out too. Shinade pointed me to a link train on her site, however I couldn't fathom how to copy all the links across, they just appeared as ordinary text :(

So I bumped into another SEO link thing at Ride it like you Stole it who pointed to the following 'gig'

Make Money with Kassper and the post 50 backlink contest

RILYSTI pointed to Get In The Google Top 10 - Post Title Optimization instead.

Now this blog is really well written and it has given me the confidence to get involved in an area of blogging that has up until now been quite esoteric. The site is really slick in its design and the explanations are really clear. So if you are intrested in how to make Money on-line or simply looking for Blogging Tips then drop in on Kassper

Now I have no real idea what I'm doing here, so I'll just have to sit back and see what happens. I hoping that as the guy says... to repeat his guide..."All you have to do in the post is link ONCE to his blog which is all about Blogging Tips on how to Make Money Online and link ONCE to any of his posts.


In return you will get more than 50 backlinks to your blog."

Time to find out how Gullible I am...

Fool My Blog

Why didn't I think of this before? Why don't we dupe our blogs into believing they are popular? Let's share some ideas on how to make this happen!

I've opened a discussion thread on Fuel My Blog and you can comment here too of course.

p.s.

RR has just set up Fool My Blog too.............seriously I ain't fuelling!

Pass me the Goblet of Gullibility

Last night I had a good 'quoff' from the Goblet of Gullibility and was granted an insight that showed how there is a postive correlation between tiredness or 'Z' and Gullibility 'G' which can be expressed as:

Z = G cubed

Not being 'on -it' having just been involved in 4 hours of intensive group dicussion I volunteered to sort out a 'logistical' problem that meant ensuring that a package was delivered from London to Leeds for a critical early evening deadline the following day.

This was all on the basis that I was being 'helpful' to a guy who needed the package delivering. Now...the daft thing was, whilst I was on business in London,where the package was, I was going no where near Leeds the following day ...and STILL agreed to doing it knowing it would cause me hassle????!!!!!

So today, I've messed about organising a courier to deliver the package to Leeds which the guy could have done himself!! Why didn't I just tell him straight yesterday that yes, I was going North but not that far North?

I was Gullibile on 3 counts

a)I'd volunteered at the last minute to work on a project where I didn't check the 'authority' and 'responsibility' of the others involved . I ASSUMED the guy was a paying client (which pre-disposed me to go into 'service at any price mode) when actual fact he was receiving free government funded research)

b)I didn't challenge him, even though my instinct said , something doesn't stack up

c)I offered to 'rescue' someone who had created a problem for themselves and I ended up gathering the hassle

Blatant Abuse of Authority

I was stumbling just now and came across this Note From Teacher and I had to read it a couple of times to check what it said.


Presumably the 'educator' who wrote this note was giving an experential lesson in 'how to create gullibility' through the example of abuse of authority. It always pays to keep the the 'heretic meme' going...

That reminds me..I must renew my membership of the kilometer high club...

Gullibometer July 2007

Well I reckon I've been really duped this month. Some of you may have noticed a slight drop off on my 'posting rate'. I put this down to being 'Mr Keen' at work and getting involved in alot of research and consultancy projects that have literally wiped out my 'mental band-width'

Why have done this? For some reason I have placed my 'experience'and 'critical thinking' modules in cold storage and justified my commitment and involvement as 'good for raising my profile', 'becoming part of the 'inner group' (whatever that is)', 'proving that I add value' by having a foot in academic and commercial camps and so on...

Will it really do me any good? Probably not in the grand scheme of things, so its back to the, 'do a professional job on my terms strategy'

What's all the more insidious is that I have fallen for the platitudes - you know 'great work on the X project RR', 'folks around here are really taking notice of you RR' etc etc...and just where exactly does that show on the payslip??

Not that I'm THAT mercenary it just that there is a real difference between the 'back slapping' words that you fall for in your twenties and the 'reality check - OK if I'm THAT good the value is worth paying for' realisation of someone who has been around the block a few times...

On a brighter note I seem to having modest success on Blogging To Fame, and yes I've broken the 2$ dollar barrier with Adnsense so that means only $999,999,98 to go...at this rate my great great great grand kids should have enough for Macdonalds Happy Meal on payback day.

Maybe that's it!..........that's the reason..........I've just read Bill Bryson's
A Short History of Nearly Everything and I'm about to start The Selfish Gene...I'm doing these jobs to guarantee better prospects for my genes and I'm blogging to guarantee better prospects for my memes !! (great line RR - trademark that)

Amazing what a bit of reflective practice can do for you. Need to check out the Will to ensure that future 'mini-me's' obtain Adsnese income from the blog - in perpetuity....


Can you imagine in the 42nd century......$10,000 a month trickling in from a blog featured on the Antiques Blog Show.....

I took your words and I believed, in everything thing you said to me!

Happy week-end folks ! Pink is awesome...gullibilty rating of 'zero' - my highest accolade

The Idiots Library

Do we really need the amount of news we seem to crave for. Is news gathering an addiction? Peter Haslam of Necessary Skills discusses the issue. On the theme of 'authority' and 'credibility' and how do we judge the truth in the torrent of news coming at us, the question remains - just how Gullible are we?

read more | digg story

Gullible.Info Features an All Digg Factoid List

Well would you believe it!! ...and it's true!..I was digging around and found this site...It is completely indpendent of Gullibility - http:gullibility.blogspot.com and its great to see a site that complements it so well... here's what they say about themselves...Gullible.Info, the great interesting and true factoid website, has all digg facts today! All six of their usual facts are related to our favorite social news site. Everyone who likes digg should check this out. The facts are pretty interesting.

read more | digg story

Well they saw Gullible old me coming!

As the talk of how we judge what is true and has authority on the 'net this site makes a great claim...and, of course, its is...because it says so!

read more | digg story


see Absolutely True