http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/2007/08/only-the-bad-ne.html Forbes magazine offers, via Jerry Bowyer, the “Much Ado About Nothing Analytical Tool” for reading the business news. It goes like this:
- Make two columns on your piece of paper.
- For everything you find that is factual, like “Hero is faithful”, write it in the left column.
- For everything that is more about feelings and perceptions, like “Claudio thinks Hero is not faithful”, write it in the right column.
- Then when you’re done, read the columns separately.
Extended out to the business news, the left shows you a picture of how the world really is, while the right shows you how the people perceive it. Bonus points to the article for recognizing that it’s a matter of time for the right to catch up with the left. In other words, eventually the facts do come out and people stop fooling themselves. At least, about that set :). By that time, a whole new set of facts has emerged for people to fool themselves.