Blame Blocks Betterment

Continental drift taught me about people.

In the 16th century, cartographer Abraham Ortelius noticed the coasts of South America and Africa looked like they could fit together. This sparked a theory: perhaps the continents once joined.

Whilst Ortelius’ theory was interesting, the systematic method of validating each expected observation was more so.

deGrasse Tyson explained: “You'll say if the continents once connected, might there be fossils in common on both shores? So you look. The fossils match. [...] During the Second World War, we're mapping the bottom of the Atlantic. We found that in the centre of the ocean there's a split - and it's separating! Once that was declassified and published, all the data fit.”

So, a valid theory should explain all expected observations.

I sipped my coffee. “Francis is such a difficult person”, I droned, “he just slows down our project by obstructing decisions.”

“Does he obstruct *all* decisions?” asked Sam, cradling his cup after a long night of baby duty.

“Well, most of them.”

“Look, let’s say your theory is true: Francis is indeed a difficult person. What else would you expect to observe?”, asked Sam.

“Well, I expect he’d be unhelpful, and maybe frustrate others.”

“Let’s work through this. Have you seen Francis helping others?”

“Well, sometimes”, I responded.

“What about your other expectation - does Francis frustrate all people?”

“Well, not always. I was surprised to see him in the lunch room often laughing with others.”

“Well, you’ve just disproven your theory” said Sam, finishing his coffee.

“What do you mean?”

“You said that if Francis is a difficult person, then we would expect him to obstruct all decisions, to not help others, and to frustrate all colleagues. But not one of these observations stand. So your theory is invalid. Do you think Francis thinks you’re difficult?”

“Probably”, I squeaked.

“Maybe the problem lies between you, not with either of you. A bad internet connection doesn’t mean your computer or the server is broken, it just means the connection needs troubleshooting. What about that as a theory for you and Francis?”

As Goldratt suggests: “If we believe that people are bad, we destine ourselves to a life of denouncing others without much doing.”

The takeaway? Theories are invalid if they do not explain all expected observations. Too often the theory is that people are the problem, and so nothing can be done. More often the reverse is true.