People (as in humans) are very simple to understand once you understand how their brains work. They respond to positive instruction. Positive instruction DOES NOT mean being nice. Positive means providing clear instruction…
Sun Tuz: “If instructions are not clear & commands not explicit, it is the fault of the general that the troops do not obey. However, if the orders are clear, & my orders have been clear it is the fault of the subordinate officers”.
The majority of the human population are “eye minded” & remember what they see. Next are those who are “ear minded” & remember what they hear. Others are “read minded” & remember what they read.
However, all x3 require CONSTRUCTIVE communication. When people seek information & understanding, at no time do they ever initially need to know what something ISN’T, what it’s NOT or what it CAN’T DO. The only time those three negatives may be necessary is after they have been given clear instruction of what something IS, what it DOES & what it CAN DO in order to help eliminate any misconceptions about possible alternatives.
Descriptions and information about what something isn’t, what it’s not or what it can’t do are infinite & therefore a lifetime can be spent telling someone what something is not.
Clarity comes from being concise about what something is specifically. When given a limited amount of time, if the information provided is divided equally between what something is and what something isn’t, people will only learn half as much, and remember even less because their memory will have trouble differentiating between what it WAS & what it WASN’T they were told.
Constructive communication whether it be visual, verbal or literal is building the concept so that the human mind can logically link the processes together with rationale so that a clear fundamental understanding can be grasped without any confusion. The confusion only being added by being told what something isn’t.
The Bitcoin White Paper wasn’t titled — “Bitcoin: Not a 3rd Party Physical Store of Value”, even though that would technically be correct. The title is constructive & specific, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. Satoshi used a negative in the white paper in section 2. Transactions but only after he had clarified the positive: “For our purposes, the earliest transaction IS the one that counts, so we DON’T care about later attempts to double-spend”.
Clear communication requires positively specific language whether that be verbal or non-verbal. The practical results inferred by the language may be the same, but the way the information is perceived & conveyed is very opposite. For example: “Don’t forget to take your change”. The operative words in the sentence are DON’T & FORGET, which is a double negative. If the sentence was constructive for longevity in the memory it would say “Remember to take your change”. A more subtle difference is asking whether the glass is half empty or half full? The question is asking if are you focused on what can be done or on something you can do nothing about.
There is always a positive way to convey the information you want to give because it is impossible for the negative to exist if the initial concept has not already been constructed.
