In response to "Easy = True"

This post is in response to Drake Bennett's article "Easy = True", posted Jan 31, 2010 on the Boston Globe's website.



In Bennett's very first example, he states that companies with names which are easy to pronounce and remember tend to do well in the stock-market. I see a case of correlation, but not necessarily direct causation. I'm not inclined to believe that it is as easy as that. The product must be up to expectations as well, or initial interest would quickly dwindle. A simple, catchy, and memorable company name does not make the company successful in itself; it is merely one piece of an effective marketing strategy. Assuming approximately equal products, perhaps it is better overall marketing that offers these companies an edge over competitors. So, Bennett has opened up with a largely unconvincing argument, that is unless he wants to assure me that his perspective is a bit narrow-minded.

The article goes on to observe that 'cognitive fluency' and its result, easy mental processing, are effective tools in a world of excessive communication, making judgments on decisions quick and effortless.

The reasoning based on evolutionary history makes sense, but I feel that many, many arguments can be based on the strategy of coming up with a way that a trait may have been useful in prehistory. Because humans have no divine insight into the inner thoughts of evolution, it can only be a theory. The evolutionary biology majors in the crowd should enlighten us if this section of the article seems any more certain to you.

We students of cartography know that unfamiliarity is an immediate deterrent, and conventions (by definition familiar and usually very easy to interpret) are meant to be followed to ease access to the content and message of a piece of rhetoric and may be strategically broken for effect. Such conventions include features like font, one of the article's examples. Using a serif font to label water bodies is simply expected, and facilitates easy processing. Knowing immediately that the button with the triangle means 'play' helps a viewer get right to the content of a video, while an unfamiliar interface is simply a frustration.

While agreeing with the points made about the effectiveness of fluency, as an individual who thrives on the unconventional, I appreciate the acknowledgement that "disfluency is intriguing and novel" (Bennett quoting Winkielman), and I would be very interested to see some evaluation of the effective use of disfluency.

"I know it's you..."

His beard was coarse and shiny like plastic as it lay on his red velvet coat adorned with white fur cuffs, while his hands were soft, fingers long, all too similar to the ones I held in my small lap; and as I looked past the fur on his red velvet hat, past the white curls of his mustache that didn’t seem to stick to his light olive skin, above his straight nose and below his dark bushy eye brows; I looked thoughtfully into his deep blue eyes, the color of a clear sky, that perfectly mirrored my own and whispered sweetly in his ear, “I know it's you, daddy.”

The Origin of Segregation

Racism has been a core issue in societies where many cultures interact on a daily basis, while some people are subjected to segregated conditions such as the lack of proper exposure to educational environments, denial of job opportunities for equally qualified minorities and subpar living conditions often seen in the ghetto areas, where the other majority is more advantaged because of the exploitation of the specific race groups, especially the class difference between African Americans and Caucasians have been pronounced throughout the last four centuries, beginning from the days of slavery where whites from different areas in Europe invaded regions in Africa to capture and enslave the blacks who were living peacefully, with a vibrant culture of their own, which was shattered by the aggressive and unfair nature of the slave traders who made it their job to subject humans to inhumane conditions, this is the precursor to the current situation of most minorities seen in the United States.

One-Sentence Waterfall

Where the surface, smooth as glass, belied the powerful current beneath, there Louisa Lake overflowed its western shore, always pouring out but never emptying; falling, shining, and crashing over rocks, the water leapt and gleamed, a torrent of white in the shadow of old-growth cedars which scrambled all over each other for a hold in the bare rock, roots braiding and twisting like some complex Celtic interlace, as they leaned to watch the waterfall spill more than one hundred feet into Agnes Lake below.

Assignment #2

The animated show South Park, often seen as nothing more than a childish, low-brow attempt at humor that is as bad for kids as guns are, has slowly, over the course of its thirteen years, become a sharp, witty, satirical television show that is fearless in taking on America’s biggest celebrities and events, and in doing so become one of the very few truly original shows in a landscape that is otherwise littered with copycat programming with nothing new to make the viewer think.

"All that glitters is not gold."

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This expression has been in use for centuries, and appeared in writing long before Shakespeare famously used it in The Merchant of Venice (with the archaic form 'glisters' in place of 'glitters') (Act II, scene vii). It is perfectly valid taken literally, but has meanings far beyond the denunciation of pyrite.

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The phrase cautions that appearances

may deceive. It warns that true worth

may not be immediately evident.

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This saying can be examined by analysis of its two keys words-- these words being, of course, 'glitter' and 'gold.'

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What does it mean to say that something 'glitters'? In this context, the word does not refer exclusively to a literal shine. As E.A. Poe put it: "glitter... its idea has become... confounded with that of magnificence in the abstract..." (The Philosophy of Furniture, 1850). A figurative glitter, then, represents perceived splendor, the conceptual equivalent to a sparkle or shimmer.

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Gold is an ancient and universal symbol of value; it acts as a common currency, it features in the finest craftwork, and is believed to have healing effects and magical qualities. Beautiful, rare, and impervious to tarnish and corrosion, gold, in the figurative sense, implies a pure and true worth.

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To state that 'all that glitters is not gold'

is to stress that superficial appeal may hide

worthless ventures or devious intentions.

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The phrase is structured as simple and direct advice. 'All that glitters is not gold' serves as a stern warning against deceptive facades. It evokes tales of those lured to betrayal by the promise of riches and of evil which hides beneath alluring masks; it reminds that things are never what they seem.

Experience is the teacher of all things

As a human being, we are more privileged than any other species. We possess the great ability of learning, and we always value our own experience. The quote that I will be analyzing says that “Experience is the teacher of all things.” (Julio Caesar). This quote seems to be very simple at a glance, but do you realize the depth of its meaning? Experiences always take many forms, such as a failure, a success, a struggle, a discovery, a realization and many types of other emotions. People often believe that life is full of experiences, and it’s the experiences that will enrich the quality of one’s life. This is why this saying resonates among many people. To interpret this saying, I shall state three aspects of the saying: its meanings, uniqueness and its impact.

To start with, I intend to examine the meaning of this quote. One of the core meanings of this saying could be that things which we experience always provide us a clue on how we should change and how we should behave. As an example, a person will learn one’s lesson from one’s failure. Also, it may mean that the experiences lead us to understand the world and ourselves better. Another example can be, when one realizes and discovers something through new experiences. Furthermore, this quote might mean that people should be taught not by a book, but by firsthand experiences. For an instance, a child who learns chemistry only through textbooks will never outweigh the knowledge of a child who has the curiosity to carryout laboratory experiments. Though this quote is very short and simple, it can have many meanings depending on one’s perception. However, an important factor to keep in mind is that the people’s perception will always have one thing in common, which is our ability to learn through experiences since the dawn of human kind.

Second of all, I intend to lead my focus towards the features of this quote. This phrase heavily relies on general applicability and common notions. This means that the phrase applies to any aspect of human life, so it must be classified under deductive reasoning. It is also suitable to say that this quote still offers us some new insight. This is due to the fact that the saying exploits a basic fact of life which people often tend to forget. As far as I feel, a life without experiences is meaningless and worthless. Although most of us recognize the significance of one’s own experiences, we often tend to be unaware of its role in our logical reasoning. However, the saying “experience is the teacher of all things” (Julio Caesar) helps us to reconsider the value of our experiences. The simplicity of the phrase is the virtue of this saying, and Caesar used neither complicated words nor difficult expressions to convey his idea. It is just simple and short, but it still inspires people after millennia.

We might want to question the influence of this quote on people. Does this saying have a strong impact? To begin with, this saying represents the form of substitution. It substitutes experiences as the teacher of all things. This technique definitely helps to strengthen its impact of the quote by its uniqueness. Another way to think this saying is in terms of its logic. If experience is the teacher of all things, something that we do not learn from an experience won’t teach us anything. If we follow this logic, where are we going? Thus, now we are forced by the power of suggestion to think that, experience is the best teacher of all things. What I want to emphasize here is that the saying is a bit overstated. If we think that “experience is the best teacher of all things,” then we can summarize that nothing can teach us as much as our experiences do. However, this overstatement is the most important key in understanding what Caesar suggested. By overstating, the saying appeals more firmly and catches audience’s attention. Thus, I’m convinced that the impact of this quote is strong.

In sum, we as human beings seek for the meaning of our lives by evaluating one’s own experiences. The saying implies that we are encouraged to be taught or learned by experiences, and experiences always teach us great lessons. Like I stated before, some experience in life might not be pleasant. However, any experiences which we go through have its own special meanings according to Caesar’s saying. Even someone’s death or misfortune might lead you to learn or face some realizations on handling your own life. Nothing is in vain, so we ought to gain as many experiences as possible in order to able improve ourselves. The quote is just simple and unaffected, so it is beautiful and unique.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

The old proverb, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”, is apparent in its meaning, depending on the context.  There are a few different meanings of “ventured”, from the more obvious, “to expose to hazard; to risk, gamble”, to the less literal, “to offer a risk of rebuff, rejection, or censure”.  As for the word “gain”, well that can have several meanings depending on the person and the place.  The definition of gain can even be lost in the same context, depending on what the proverb-giver meant and how the proverb-listener took it.  Overall, however, the general meaning of the proverb can be defined as, “if you do not take risks, you’ll never accomplish anything.”  How this proverb accomplishes its meaning rhetorically is, of course, less general and relies on the ethics, logic, and emotion of the phrase.

            “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”, will change meaning depending on the ethics of the situation, or even just the intention and ethics of the person saying it.  For example, the difference between your mother expressing this statement to you vs. your drug dealer would change the meaning quite a bit.  Here, the ethics of the situation change as well as the ethics of the proverb-giver and your trust in them.  Who you trust, your ethics, and the ethics of the situation all come into play when interpreting this well known proverb.

            Logically, this phrase makes sense: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”; how can one gain anything without doing something first?  In this sense, the phrase can be considered a type of enthymeme in that there lies an unstated assumption that to gain something, you must do something first.  Then you may lead to the broader, deductive, conclusion that if nothing is ventured, nothing will be gained.  In the case of most proverbs, they start inductively, crafted out of a series of similar circumstances, and become deductive, applied to all situations.  What is convenient about most rhetorical devices is their ability to change depending on the context, and still make sense. 

            If a public speaker were to enter the room with the phrase, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”, it would most definitely mean something different to every person.  One person might feel regret for not taking a risk earlier in life – the “what if” guy.  Another person might apply it to a current situation and get excited – the “needed a push” guy.  Either way, you cannot hear this proverb without feeling a certain emotion tied to the words and the context to which you apply it.  For me, I feel both encouragement and apprehension for the potential risks I’m about to take, knowing that I will not gain anything without trying and yet scared of the outcome, of failure, and even success.  Even if we take the risk and make the gain, but that gain turns out to be something we don’t want in the future, how can we win?  It’s the level of uncertainty tied to the phrase that boils up so many emotions and gives it its meaning, its encouragement, its regret. 

            One doesn’t need to pull apart the rhetoric of this statement to understand its meaning.  We all take it differently depending on the context anyway.  However, it is interesting to appreciate the many meanings of this proverb that can only be realized if you incorporate rhetoric.  It is this ability to pull apart the many meanings of a sentence or statement that will broaden one’s writing, one’s thinking, and one’s emotion.  

Assignment #1

"It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt."

I chose this saying because I feel it is a perfect one for me, and one I at least try to live.

The type of reasoning here is inductive because the saying is not using a preconceived notion, and is instead meant to be applied as a general rule to the public. The main ideas of the quote is not presented until the end of the argument, and although it does rely heavily on humor to get its point across, it does have an element of humor to it. There are no obvious structural techniques being used; however, there is definitely a rhythm to the phrase. The phrase is an older one, but is not as hackneyed as many other sayings.