Favorite Sayings

(and their antidotes)

Well, I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite sayings today. Ever wonder where "old sayings" come from? Often they're quotes (well, probably always), but most originate out of "conventional wisdom." Conventional wisdom represents things that have been learned over and over in a culture or society or its predecessors. By "learned over and over" I mean that so many people have been burned by making the same mistake that other people begin to brighten up and spread the rumor around that maybe one shouldn't make that particular mistake. Let's take a hypothetical example. Suppose in some northern society a small percentage of the people were in the habit of walking around in the forest naked all night. OK, whatever. First blizzard comes, you've got a bunch of dead naked people the next morning. Hmm, someone probably begins to suspect that the combination of no clothes, no shelter and a blizzard is a bad thing. Several generations later, when more and more people die of exposure during blizzards, someone probably comes up with the firm conviction that you should not wander naked through the woods at night in a blizzard. Well, they probably don't phrase it exactly that way; there are three variables here (weather, shelter & clothing) and it's hard to imagine they get it all right the first time around. So it probably becomes "Wear clothing while wandering the woods in a blizzard," or "Don't wander the woods in a blizzard" (even better). Over time, this becomes conventional wisdom. Most likely no one remembers exactly why it became conventional wisdom (let's face it, all the stubborn naked-blizzard-wanderers die out after a while), but few question it. Note that "conventional wisdom" is quite different from "common sense."  "Common sense" is often neither common nor sensible, and is nearly almost used in the following context: "This is obvious, and you insult yourself if you ask me to tell you why?" I'll tell you more about that one later.  OK, where was I? Oh yes, some of my favorite sayings:

Never attribute to deviousness what can be explained by stupidity.  I wish I knew who to whom to attribute this one. This is one of my favorite Corporate sayings, I've found countless situations where some upper-management decision engendered numerous conspiracy theories that flew through the rank-and-file of a company. Guess what? This wasn't some elaborate 4-step scheme to screw you out of your pension/benefits/job/whatever, the senior managers just screwed up/didn't know any better/were fallible humans/were preoccupied with other things. Sorry to disappoint -- that's just usually the way it is.

Sunk costs don't matter This is one of two basic tenets of Finance. Don't make decisions based on how much money you've already lost, make your decisions based on how much you expect to gain - or lose - going forward. You can't get back what's already gone. This is actually a difficult concept for most to grasp, and is definitely not what I'd call conventional wisdom. What's the other basic tenet? Don't throw good money after bad.  Hmmm, put it this way - the reason you have 'sunk costs' is because you listened to people who told you how much you were going to gain by performing some activity. Now those same people are telling you "sunk costs don't matter, look at how much we'll gain in the future." Now this one is conventional wisdom. Should've saved this one for the next Cheap MBA essay.

No one ever complained at the end of a successful software project that they spent too much time in the design phase. Hey, I said that! One of those little flashes of inspiration I got in front of a customer a few years ago. Helped win their trust and make the sale, and hell, it even makes sense!

Good pitching always beats good hitting... and vice-versa. Again, I don't remember to whom this quote is attributed, but it is so true. Or is it so false? I just like it, either way. It's right up there with another favorite baseball saying "He throws so hard he could through a cream-puff through a battleship." It doesn't make sense, but you kinda' get the point.

I promised more about the common sense thing earlier, right? Well, here it is, sort-of. When I was in graduate school I had a course that was taught in a small classroom directly across from the Professor's office. This particular prof was a bit idiosyncratic; even though there were only four of us in the class, he lectured with his back to the class, writing every word he spoke on the board as he went. He was in the middle of some long mathematical proof when he made (and wrote, verbatim) a statement that went something like "Now, it is obvious that A equals B." He then stopped and stared, silently, at the board for a full two minutes. He excused himself, walked across the hall to his office, where we could see him scribbling furiously for at least five minutes. He came back in and picked right up: "Now, it is obvious that A equals B..."  OK then, if it was so bloody obvious, why did it just take him five minutes of furious scribbling to convince himself? I think of this every time I hear (or use) the phrase "common sense." I mean, hell, it's so obvious.