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Bruce Byfield, responding to my previous posting, reports: <<Stereotypes? Or
observations?... This habit of deducing the
general from the particular was good enough for Sherlock Holmes...>>
Ah, you _observe_, Watson, but you do not _see_! <gdrlh> Nope, my comments
were not specifically directed at you, but since you bring it up, I feel
obliged to point out that your personal experience (like mine) is limited
compared to the wide range of people who exist out there. For example: on
the whole, I've had much more positive experiences with English majors and
military Majors (Commanders, actually) than most of the respondents seem to
have, despite some notorious exceptions. And that's the danger in
stereotyping: even if it's based on sound observational data, those
observations generally apply to a relatively small (and often stratified)
sample, and even when they really are broadly applicable, they tend to blind
us to individual differences. Plus, as I hope to point out as part of the
information design progression at the STC conference, even valid stereotypes
often lead us to superficial conclusions that ignore the real issues.
<<Reality is tentative (which makes me feel sort of queasy, so please excuse
me).>>
"Fantasy is not our crutch; it's arcane." <g>
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
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