The frog and the useless

Zhuangzi's well frog cannot be told about the ocean, because the well is the whole of the space he knows. A survey posted only to a book club has the same shape: the people who answered are standing in for everyone. His line on the useless is the other warning. Everyone knows the use of the useful, and so they miss what does not fit the current plan. A narrow sample and a narrow purpose reinforce each other.

“You can't discuss the ocean with a well frog — he's limited by the space he lives in.”

Zhuangzi · Daoism

knowledgemind

Paraphrase or translation

Meaning & application

“Everyone knows the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless.”

Zhuangzi · Daoism

knowledgesocietyfreedom

Paraphrase or translation

Meaning & application

Mini check

A survey about reading habits is posted only in a book-club forum, then used as a picture of "people in general." What distorts it?

Book-club readers are standing in for people in general.One author's shine is spilling onto a judgement of the survey.Money already spent on printing is treated as the distortion.The word book is shifted in sense inside the one claim.

"The policy helps the average student, so it helps students." What scope assumption is hidden?

The average is taken to stand for the students who matter here.Averages are taken to be something nobody can calculate.Every student is taken to have scored the same as that average.A policy is taken to improve when it ignores the evidence.

Try it today

When you say 'people think', name the group you actually heard, and one group you did not.

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