Details and Conclusions

 

On the first day of medical school, a professor tells his class, “As a doctor, it is of utmost importance that you are courageous and meticulous.” Having said this, he sticks his finger into a urine sample on his desk, and puts the finger into his mouth. Then, he hands the urine sample over to the students and watches as they suppress their nausea and follow suit, taking turns to give the urine sample a taste.

Finally, he laughs and says, “Very well, all of you have demonstrated that you are courageous enough. But it’s a pity that none of you are meticulous enough. None of you noticed that I reached into the vial with my index finger, but the finger I subsequently placed into my mouth was my middle finger!”

A professor at law school tells a story during his class. Three hunting dogs chase a groundhog. The groundhog ducks into one end of a log, but what emerges from the other end is a rabbit. The rabbit dashes forward at lightning speed and jumps onto a tall tree. However, it loses its footing and falls onto the three hunting dogs that have been watching it from beneath the tree. The three dogs are knocked unconscious by the impact of the rabbit’s fall and so, the rabbit escapes unscathed.

When this story came to an end, many students wants answers to their questions. How could a rabbit climb a tree? How could a rabbit knock three hunting dogs unconscious at the same time?

“The questions you are asking are not too bad and demonstrate just how illogical this story has been”, the professor responds. “But the most important question has yet to be asked – where on earth did the groundhog go?”

A professor of art history is lecturing on the use of colours by ancient artists. By baking a shell, grinding it into a fine powder, and mixing it with glue, one is able to make white paint.

Later, the professor conducts an examination, and one of the questions was a true-or-false question.

“If you picked up a seashell by the beach, placed it in a furnace, baked it at five hundred degrees for thirty minutes, removed it from the furnace, ground it into powder, and then mixed the powder with glue, you will get black paint.”

Most of the students confidently circled ‘True’ before they had even finished reading the statement.

By paying attention to conclusions and neglecting the details, or by focusing on the details and ignoring the conclusions, people reveal a tendency to take for granted their methods of thinking when they are in a hurry and neglect to put in extra effort into verification. This is our common mistake!

 

细节与结论*

著：刘墉

注意结论，而忽略细节，或专注细节而忽略结论，这是人们常犯的错误啊。

有位医学院的教授，在上课的第一天对他的学生说：“当医生，最要紧的是胆大心细！” 说完，便将一只手指伸进桌上的一杯尿液里，再把手指放进自己的嘴中，接着便将那杯尿液递给学生。

看着每个学生都忍着呕，照样把探人尿杯的手指塞进嘴里，教授笑嘻嘻地说：“不错，你们每个人都够胆大，只可惜不够细心，没有注意到到我探人尿杯的是食指，放进嘴里的却是中指啊！

有位法学院的教授，上课时说了一个故事：有三只猎狗追一只土拨鼠，土拨鼠钻进一个树洞，居然从树洞的另一边跑出了一只兔子，兔子飞快地向前跑，并跳上一棵大树，却在树枝上没站稳，掉了下来，压晕了正仰头看的猎狗，兔子终于逃脱。

故事讲完，许多学生提出他们的疑问：

兔子为什么会爬树呢？

一只兔子怎么可能同时压晕三条猎狗呢!

“这些问题都不错，显示了故事的不合理。” 教授说，“可是，更重要的事情，你们却没问 – 土拨鼠到哪里去了？”

有位教美术史的教授，在谈到古代国画家使用的颜料是说：“将贝壳烧烤之后，磨成细粉，再以胶水调和，可以做成白色的颜料。”

接着，教授便举行考试，其中有一道是非题；如果你在海边捡到了贝壳，带回家放进烤箱，以五百度烤上三十分钟，再拿出来磨成细粉，以胶水调和，可以做成黑色颜料。

结果大部分学生都没有看完这个题目，便十分自信地答“是”。

注意结论，而忽略细节；或专注细节而忽略结论。匆匆忙忙地，以自己想当然的方法去思想，却忽略了查证的功夫，这是人们常犯的错误啊！

 

* Reprinted with permission from SYZ Studio