THE WELCH COMPANY
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415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: July 29, 2000 03:06 PM Saturday; Rod Welch

Joe Ransdell submitted letter on "truth" objective of KM.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Truth Brings Reliability to Logic for Predicting Future
3...Action Seeks to Rely on Truth = Knowledge for Decision Support
4...Science Unravels Complexity, Deception Through Process of Experiments
......Mistakes are Secrets of Meaning Drift that Cause Self Deception
......Secrets of Meaning Drift Cause Self Deception - Mistakes
......Meaning Drift Creates Secrets Where the Mind Deceives Itself
......Signs Symbols from Sight and Sound Form Meaning
......Community Builds Trust Through Cooperation to Avoid Competition
5...Com Metrics Improves Listening, Learning and Leadership
6...Accuracy Requires Constant Renewal to Verify Connections Cause Effect
7...Bootstrapping Meaning by Constantly Checking Associations of Symbols

ACTION ITEMS.................. Click here to comment!

1...Joe indicates this analysis is the first part of a lengthier account

CONTACTS 
0201 - Texas Tech University                                                                                                                                              O-00000761 0504
020101 - Mr. Joseph M. Ransdell; Associate Professor                                                                                                                      O-00000761 0504
020103 - Department of Philosophy                                                                                                                                         O-00000761 0504

SUBJECTS
Risk Communication Main Factor of Management Success
Creativity Recognizing Patterns from Life Experience
Truth Source Reliability Inference Predictability Planning Vision to
Mistakes are Secrets of Meaning Drift that Cause Self Deception
Intelligence Solves Trickery Deception

1807 -
1807 -    ..
1808 - Summary/Objective
1809 -
180901 - Follow up ref SDS A0 0000, ref SDS 99 0000.
180902 -
180903 - Joe provides analysis showing importance of truth for reliability of
180904 - analysis and decisions endemic to human thought that guides action
180905 - for survival.  He recognizes this is a big part of Communication
180906 - Metrics, and plans on expanding the analysis today with additional
180907 - parts for a coherent treatment of issues.
180909 -          ..
180910 -         [On 010123 inquiry from student about listening and
180911 -         leadership, for doctoral thesis. ref SDS A2 0001
180912 -
180914 -  ..
1810 -
1811 -
1812 - Progress
1813 -
181301 - Truth Brings Reliability to Logic for Predicting Future
181302 - Action Seeks to Rely on Truth = Knowledge for Decision Support
181303 - Science Unravels Complexity, Deception Through Process of Experiments
181304 -
181305 - Received ref DRT 1 0001 from Joe following up our telecon yesterday
181306 - about completing review of NWO..., and getting on to other issues
181307 - correlating Communication Metrics with Joe's work in semiotics, from
181308 - the record on 000713. ref SDS 87 4078
181310 -  ..
181311 - Joe indicates this analysis is the first part of a lengthier account
181312 - of some basic ideas in Peirce's logic.  He plans to go on from his
181313 - analysis today, to relate Peirce's view of the relationship of logical
181314 - to non-logical thinking, which might add something to the overall KM
181315 - picture, per my request on 000713. ref SDS 87 0616
181316 -
181317 -    [On 000922 submitted follow up. ref SDS A1 0001
181319 -     ..
181320 -    [On 050115 Jack Park comments that Mary's paper holds that Perice's
181321 -    semiotics presents learning as deeper than refining accuracy of
181322 -    knowledge through experience. ref SDS A3 MN8O
181324 -  ..
181325 - Joe explains Peirce conceived of logic as the theoretical process of
181326 - thinking for discovering, maintaining, and conveying truth.
181327 - ref DRT 1 1479
181329 -  ..
181330 - "Truth" originates from need for reliability and trust. ref DRT 1 5208
181331 - Beliefs and opinions require reliability in order to take action that
181332 - sustains life.
181333 -
181334 -      On 950412 truth is a moving target in management. ref SDS 12
181335 -      3920
181337 -       ..
181338 -      On 000720 feedback is metric that refines accuracy and "truth."
181339 -      ref SDS 95 2960 also in NWO... ref OF 2 0936
181341 -       ..
181342 -      Aligns with Mary Keeler's paper reviewed on 000515 that Peirce's
181343 -      semiotics and philosophy was driven in part by the importance of
181344 -      accuracy, ref SDS 69 7380, which she discussed again at SRI on
181345 -      000518. ref SDS 71 3528
181347 -  ..
181348 - Deception makes belief unreliable which delays action in order to gain
181349 - experience that discloses actual cause and effect, i.e., accuracy that
181350 - overcomes deception.  Natural deceptions evolve through competition
181351 - for resources, like protective coloration and misleading mimicry at
181352 - the most primitive levels of life, e.g. virus behavior is a form of
181353 - trickery.  This method of competing for resources makes the trickster
181354 - one of the most universal figures in mythology.  The need to avoid
181355 - deception drives historical development of intelligence efforts.
181356 - ref DRT 1 3072
181358 -  ..
181359 - Joe also cites meaning drift as a cause of error in addition to
181360 - deception.  He proposes people must have a sort of instinctual logical
181361 - sense.  Peirce calls this our "logic in use" ("logica utens" is the
181362 - usual Latin term for it).  But it has its limits. ref DRT 1 2484
181364 -       ..
181365 -      Mistakes are Secrets of Meaning Drift that Cause Self Deception
181366 -      Secrets of Meaning Drift Cause Self Deception - Mistakes
181367 -      Meaning Drift Creates Secrets Where the Mind Deceives Itself
181368 -
181369 -      Follow up ref SDS 98 1144.
181370 -
181371 -      Ignorance and complexity add to deception and meaning drift in
181372 -      requiring intelligence processes to discover "knowledge," i.e.,
181373 -      reliable belief about cause and effect to guide action, as called
181374 -      out in POIMS. ref OF 1 0582
181376 -       ..
181377 -      Limited time to gain experience and limited span of attention to
181378 -      understand impede intelligence, and impair knowledge from prior
181379 -      experience, due to meaning drift, explained in NWO, ref OF 2
181380 -      9449, from original work on 960518. ref SDS 19 3734
181381 -
181383 -       ..
181384 -      Signs Symbols from Sight and Sound Form Meaning
181385 -      Community Builds Trust Through Cooperation to Avoid Competition
181386 -
181387 -      The mind knows deception is employed by people and nature to
181388 -      compete for resources, and so is alerted to verify understanding
181389 -      in advance of taking action.  People form alliances to build
181390 -      trust that reduces the risk of deception by reducing competition
181391 -      through cooperation, called "community" that uses communication.
181392 -      Sign language using hands, facial expression and body language
181393 -      were early forms of communication, later enhanced by vocal sounds
181394 -      that use a broader range of mental strength for assembling sight
181395 -      and sound into consistent associations, called meaning, explained
181396 -      on 000518. ref SDS 71 3528  The mind remains aware that trust is
181397 -      a variable, which makes communication a risk giving rise to
181398 -      strategies for intelligence, ranging from no investigation of
181399 -      trusted friends and allys, to extensive efforts against enemys.
181401 -       ..
181402 -      The mind, however, is unaware that its own processes are wired to
181403 -      construct secrets from itself through conviction in the truth of
181404 -      incorrect understanding, explained on 000724, ref SDS 98 1144,
181405 -      which needs to be discovered before bumping into a mistake in the
181406 -      future, as occurred with NASA on 991001. ref SDS 37 0001
181408 -       ..
181409 -      The new environment of information overload overwhelms limited
181410 -      span of attention due to complexity and delay in feedback that
181411 -      causes the mind to trick itself by drawing on fragments of memory
181412 -      from communication and experience that seem to form a coherent
181413 -      picture.  But actually the picture is incorrect for the context
181414 -      that requires action, and therefore comprises false knowledge,
181415 -      because at the moment a decision is taken, the picture seems
181416 -      vivid and real, true and correct, per POIMS. ref OF 1 8316
181418 -       ..
181419 -      Communication is a strategy that supplements direct experience
181420 -      for learning about the world, and thus enables people to greatly
181421 -      leverage personal mental strength.  Information overload is an
181422 -      example of too much of a good thing by accelerating meaning drift
181423 -      from merely annoying forgetfulness, into a major risk that
181424 -      threatens success of enterprise, and, in the extreme, survival.
181426 -  ..
181427 - Science evolved as a technique to add reliability about truth through
181428 - careful and controlled process of acquiring experience, called
181429 - "experiments." ref DRT 1 9801
181430 -
181431 -
181432 -
181433 -
181434 -
1815 -

SUBJECTS
Meaning Words Bootstraps Construction
Bootstrap Baron von Munchhausen Claim Could Lift Himself by Tugging o
Accuracy Requires Continual Renewal Connections Cause Effect
Meaning Constructed from Connection Signs Symbols into Patterns Assoc
Meaning Words Bootstraps Construction

2507 -
250801 -  ..
250802 - Com Metrics Improves Listening, Learning and Leadership
250803 - Accuracy Requires Constant Renewal to Verify Connections Cause Effect
250804 - Bootstrapping Meaning by Constantly Checking Associations of Symbols
250805 -
250806 - Word meaning is a bootstrap operation similar to original explanation
250807 - from Baron von Munchhausen's fabulous claim to be able to lift himself
250808 - by tugging on his own bootstraps. ref DRT 1 2520
250809 -
250810 -     Doug Engelbart likely is aware of the lineage that associates
250811 -     bootstrapping with construction of meaning, that is inherently
250812 -     prone to error, yet is constantly checking itself for accuracy,
250813 -     based on Doug's ideas for ABC continual improvement, reviewed on
250814 -     991222. ref SDS 45 3961
250816 -  ..
250817 - The mind connects signs and symbols into associations that constitute
250818 - meaning through a constant process of bootstrapping, ref DRT 1 4544,
250819 - that verifies accuracy.  On 000518 Mary Keeler explained that accuracy
250820 - requires a process of verification is never achieved. ref SDS 71 3528
250821 - also previously on 000515. ref SDS 69 7380 Thus, living in a constant
250822 - environment of familiar people, things and processes, or "culture,"
250823 - and, also, repeated experience verifies understanding that leads to
250824 - belief and conviction in truth about reliablity of knowledge.  Trust
250825 - in reliability frees up mental energy for expanding the horizon of
250826 - inquiry.
250828 -  ..
250829 - Joe sees this as the dimension of adventure in thinking, and shows
250830 - that people who try to handle dangerous contingencies by clamping down
250831 - and trying to keep change from occurring by fixing it at a given time
250832 - are in fact insuring that the change which occurs will be
250833 - catastrophic. Somehow the key to intelligence lies both in being
250834 - paranoid (like the CEO you mention) and being adventurous, which seems
250835 - at first like a paradox but really isn't. ref DRT 1 4451
250837 -       ..
250838 -      Joe does not mention the source of his observation about a
250839 -      paranoid CEO who "clamps down."  The description sounds like fear
250840 -      of accountability, reviewed on 980405. ref SDS 29 5065
250842 -       ..
250843 -      More recently, on 990624 Fortune published an article relating
250844 -      CEOs fail because they fail to follow good management practice,
250845 -      ref SDS 34 7344, called out by Grove to take copious notes and
250846 -      obtain feedback that avoid ambiguity of mental maps (i.e.,
250847 -      meaning drift, see above, ref SDS 0 7593), by verifying accuracy,
250848 -      which strengthens "listening."  This improves learning, which is
250849 -      key attribute of leadership, reported on 980307, ref SDS 28 3668,
250850 -      and earlier on 950911 reviewing the Toffler's work in thier book
250851 -      "Future Shock." ref SDS 15 2222  Drucker, reviewed on 931130,
250852 -      notes that analysis is a core responsibility of management,
250853 -      ref SDS 6 7911, which further reflects Covey's call to first
250854 -      understand, then prescribe; and, that keeping a diary improves
250855 -      mental acuity to aid understanding, reported on 921205.
250856 -      ref SDS 4 2231
250858 -       ..
250859 -      This connection between listening, learning and leadership is
250860 -      supported by the SDS design that enables consistent anaysis to
250861 -      align communication.  Empowering people to continually seek the
250862 -      "truth," strengthens both leadership and community, under
250863 -      Randsell's explanation about the need for reliability in deciding
250864 -      a course of action. see above. ref SDS 0 JL6O
250865 -
250866 -         [On 010123 inquiry from student about listening and
250867 -         leadership, for doctoral thesis. ref SDS A2 0001
250868 -
250869 -
250870 -
250871 -
250872 -
250873 -
250874 -
250875 -
250876 -
250877 -
250878 -
2509 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"