The concept is simple, the "Fundamental Attribution Error." This is a relatively simple idea yet nearly everyone is guilty of falling victim to it every day in a variety of settings. Let's use the acronym "FAE" as a shorthand for referring to the Fundamental Attribution Error. You commit the FAE when you believe that other people's actions are a result of the sort of people they are and have nothing to do with the environment or situation they are in. You quickly forget the power of one's setting in affecting people's behavior and you attribute what you see entirely on the individual.
For instance, the most common example is blaming a poor person for his poverty and assuming he is poor because he is lazy and incompetent. You easily forget that the poor individual lives in a completely different environment from yourself and doesn't have the same opportunities available. He can't afford to drive around to interviews and networking events and he often depends on public transportation which can be unreliable, unpredictable, and involve considerably longer travel times than using a car. You also have to realize that the poor individual most likely lives in a low-income neighborhood with very limited job opportunities. As a result, there actually aren't that many jobs to even consider applying to. Another difficulty involves crime rates. This individual has to keep focused in an environment where muggings, rape, rampant drug use, stabbings, and shootings are much more common than in higher-income neighborhoods. The person's family members might also be criminals and drug users and he might have a parent that abandoned him when he was young. The list of realistic and likely difficulties is obviously extensive and I would be able to list more if I had a background on such issues or came from such a low-income and high-crime neighborhood myself.
Given all these difficulties, can poor individuals still fight through their environments and succeed? Of course. But, the issue here is that we far too quickly forget about the environment an individual operates in and we assume that his failures and shortcomings are due strictly to internal attributes. Do you know how successful you would be if you operated in such a difficult environment as well? There is no way to realistically answer that question without pressing the Restart button on your life and starting in similar circumstances.
Another example of a FAE that more people might be familiar with involves significant others or family members. For instance, your loved one is indifferent or cold towards your wants and needs. Do you automatically jump the gun and assume that he or she doesn't care about you as a person and doesn't care about your issues or do you instead realize that this person's behavior towards you at this moment might be related to stress that he or she is experiencing at work? Or perhaps your loved one has dealt with difficult individuals all day and their patience is superbly thin at the moment. If the coldness and indifference is a consistent and long-term issue then there might be other factors at play and your loved one might genuinely have problems against you as a person. But, your initial assumption shouldn't involve blaming the individual, it should first involve considering powerful environmental influences that might be affecting his or her behavior towards you at the moment.
The next time you are ready to blame or get upset at either yourself or another person for failures and shortcomings, take a moment to first consider the situation and the environment at play. This doesn't mean that you should excuse incompetence, laziness, malice, betrayal, and other despicable behaviors. This simply means that you should take a more thorough approach when judging people and explicitly consider the influence of the situation and other environmental factors.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Keep it local
In a previous entry I discussed some ideas on how to get your audience to not only pay attention to what you are saying but actually care as well. The takeaway lesson was using themes and priorities that your audience is likely to care about and connecting them to your ideas which they probably don't care about yet.
Often times, when people are presented with an issue, their first reaction is assuming that what you're talking about doesn't affect them. Even if you appeal to topics and people they care about, you might still not make the connection because they will consider the issue or problem relevant for others and not them.
For instance, you are tasked with giving a persuasive presentation on traffic congestion reduction strategies to city planners and engineers from cities across California. Your goal is to push these professionals towards adopting pre-emptive measures to ward off potential traffic increases in the near future. However, the problem is that a lot of these planners work in cities that do not have traffic issues and they believe that the problem is only present in dense and congested areas such as Los Angeles. You strategy in this case should focus on making the problem relevant and local. You need to clearly show that congestion problems are guaranteed to arrive after certain population and car ownership thresholds are reached and surpassed. To drive (pun, although unintentional at first, is now intended ; ) ) the point home even further, show population growth projections for the less urban areas and clearly show that they are headed in the same direction as the dense urban areas.
Now, let's consider the case of a non-profit group fighting for clean water rights in California. The main barrier that such a group faces is showing that contaminated water issues aren't just relevant in Northern California's farming communities where nitrate contamination is a serious problem. Whenever this group wants to spread its message in a new community, it has to connect the problem to the local area. For instance, there are many contaminated wells in Southern California as well. The problem actually isn't just a problem for the north. By showing that even local water supplies have been contaminated and need remediation, the group has a much higher chance of making their message relevant which can lead to greater support. Another option is to show the clear progression of water contamination in the north to major urban areas in the south. Southern population centers do get a majority of their water from the Northern California after all. If the source of water becomes contaminated, it doesn't matter where the water travels, it has already been contaminated.
Whatever strategy you ultimately decide to take, just remember that if the issue isn't local or relevant, your ideas are going to have a difficult time gaining traction.
Often times, when people are presented with an issue, their first reaction is assuming that what you're talking about doesn't affect them. Even if you appeal to topics and people they care about, you might still not make the connection because they will consider the issue or problem relevant for others and not them.
For instance, you are tasked with giving a persuasive presentation on traffic congestion reduction strategies to city planners and engineers from cities across California. Your goal is to push these professionals towards adopting pre-emptive measures to ward off potential traffic increases in the near future. However, the problem is that a lot of these planners work in cities that do not have traffic issues and they believe that the problem is only present in dense and congested areas such as Los Angeles. You strategy in this case should focus on making the problem relevant and local. You need to clearly show that congestion problems are guaranteed to arrive after certain population and car ownership thresholds are reached and surpassed. To drive (pun, although unintentional at first, is now intended ; ) ) the point home even further, show population growth projections for the less urban areas and clearly show that they are headed in the same direction as the dense urban areas.
Now, let's consider the case of a non-profit group fighting for clean water rights in California. The main barrier that such a group faces is showing that contaminated water issues aren't just relevant in Northern California's farming communities where nitrate contamination is a serious problem. Whenever this group wants to spread its message in a new community, it has to connect the problem to the local area. For instance, there are many contaminated wells in Southern California as well. The problem actually isn't just a problem for the north. By showing that even local water supplies have been contaminated and need remediation, the group has a much higher chance of making their message relevant which can lead to greater support. Another option is to show the clear progression of water contamination in the north to major urban areas in the south. Southern population centers do get a majority of their water from the Northern California after all. If the source of water becomes contaminated, it doesn't matter where the water travels, it has already been contaminated.
Whatever strategy you ultimately decide to take, just remember that if the issue isn't local or relevant, your ideas are going to have a difficult time gaining traction.
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Source: http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/tap_water_anders_andermark.jpg?w=223&h=315 |
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Prime it up
"Priming" is a very interesting and potentially manipulative phenomena. Put simply, priming involves the actor being unknowingly influenced by something or someone in his environment. Your behavior or thoughts may be affected by an environmental influence and you may never even realize it.
The best way to understand this concept is through clear examples. For instance, restaurants often use warm colors such as orange, brown, and red inside their restaurants. Consumer research has shown that warm colors (especially RED) are able to to stimulate appetite. The color red also "instantly attracts attention and it makes people excited, energetic, and increases the heart rate." All of this occurs without you even consciously realizing it or controlling it. This is an excellent example of priming because you're "primed" and can find yourself feeling hungrier than usual and excited to eat something even if you didn't seem to have much of an appetite initially.
Consider another example. You are leaving a coffee shop, and on the way out, you see a group of smokers. As you pass by, the wind blows all their smoke in your face and you start coughing and get annoyed. Later on during the day, a person with a clipboard approaches you and asks you if you have time to sign an anti-smoking petition. Chances are, you're more likely to be open to the idea because of your previous experience during the day. The smoke being blown in your face primed you to be more open to the idea of signing that petition.
Now, let's tie this back to effective communication and influencing your audience. Let's imagine you are the head of the Bureau of Street Services department in a large city such as Los Angeles. You are a believer in native gardens and want to push the city to invest into creating such gardens at publicly owned sites. You believe that native gardens can be aesthetically pleasing while also providing benefits such as water savings and stormwater quality and quantity control. To effectively influence your audience, you should figure out a way of priming them before they even arrive to your presentation or meeting. Hold the meeting at a location that has beautiful native gardens along the path to the entrance of the building. Such a strategy will effectively prime your audience and it will also serve as a concrete and visual example. As discussed in previous posts, being concrete with your examples is quite effective. Seeing a real live example of what you are going to discuss is as concrete as it can possibly get.
Often times, effective priming will most likely be difficult or perhaps even expensive to set up but you should always keep the idea in the back of your mind and utilize it whenever it's realistically possible.
Citations: http://www.colorschemer.com/blog/2007/07/17/why-food-companies-use-red-colors/
The best way to understand this concept is through clear examples. For instance, restaurants often use warm colors such as orange, brown, and red inside their restaurants. Consumer research has shown that warm colors (especially RED) are able to to stimulate appetite. The color red also "instantly attracts attention and it makes people excited, energetic, and increases the heart rate." All of this occurs without you even consciously realizing it or controlling it. This is an excellent example of priming because you're "primed" and can find yourself feeling hungrier than usual and excited to eat something even if you didn't seem to have much of an appetite initially.
Consider another example. You are leaving a coffee shop, and on the way out, you see a group of smokers. As you pass by, the wind blows all their smoke in your face and you start coughing and get annoyed. Later on during the day, a person with a clipboard approaches you and asks you if you have time to sign an anti-smoking petition. Chances are, you're more likely to be open to the idea because of your previous experience during the day. The smoke being blown in your face primed you to be more open to the idea of signing that petition.
Now, let's tie this back to effective communication and influencing your audience. Let's imagine you are the head of the Bureau of Street Services department in a large city such as Los Angeles. You are a believer in native gardens and want to push the city to invest into creating such gardens at publicly owned sites. You believe that native gardens can be aesthetically pleasing while also providing benefits such as water savings and stormwater quality and quantity control. To effectively influence your audience, you should figure out a way of priming them before they even arrive to your presentation or meeting. Hold the meeting at a location that has beautiful native gardens along the path to the entrance of the building. Such a strategy will effectively prime your audience and it will also serve as a concrete and visual example. As discussed in previous posts, being concrete with your examples is quite effective. Seeing a real live example of what you are going to discuss is as concrete as it can possibly get.
Often times, effective priming will most likely be difficult or perhaps even expensive to set up but you should always keep the idea in the back of your mind and utilize it whenever it's realistically possible.
Citations: http://www.colorschemer.com/blog/2007/07/17/why-food-companies-use-red-colors/
Friday, March 2, 2012
How to frame an issue
How an issue is framed can have significant effects an a viewer's attitudes. For instance, persuasive messages that are presented in a negative or threatening manner have been shown to be more effective at encouraging people to act. An example of this can be seen in energy conservation. If given the choice between portraying energy conservation measures as saving customers $350 a year or resulting in the loss of $350, it might actually be more effective to take the negative route and warn customers that they will lose money if they do not change their energy consumption habits. Such an approach might be more successful because people are loss averse. Experiments with gambling have shown that given the choice in taking a risk with a coin toss, subjects were only willing to take the gamble if the size of the reward from getting a heads was roughly twice as large as the loss from getting a tails.
Another study looked at the effects of threatening messages on environmental attitudes. The conclusions of several energy conservation studies were analyzed and the authors found that if the subjects believed environmental deterioration was imminent and local, they were much more likely to show environmentally responsible behavior. Part of the reason for such an observation might be because “awareness of severe and/or widespread harmful consequences to other people tends to activate the feeling that action should be taken to avert or alleviate the harm.” Such findings give insight into how environmental messages can be framed to have a greater effect.
These findings are a bit counter-intuitive but scaring people and focusing on losses seems to have a stronger effect on behavioral change than focusing on rewards and benefits.
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Source: http://www.gordonisimo.com/images/OvercomingDivingFear_10308/ScaredFace.jpg |
Monday, February 20, 2012
Why won't they CARE!?!
My previous entries have primarily been about making your ideas and your message memorable and persuasive. However, sometimes you need to go a step further and get people to truly care about what you are saying so they will actually act upon your message.
The solution to this problem is simple in theory but most likely difficult in practice. The goal is to get your audience to make a connection between something they don't yet care about with something that they most likely do care about. The tricky part is finding out what your audience would in general care about. One of the safest bets is self interest. People generally care about themselves and gaining personal benefits. If possible, you should focus on what kinds of benefits your audience has to gain. Additionally, the potential benefits should be described in tangible and non-abstract terms that people can easily relate to. If they are unable to properly visualize the potential personal gains, they are going to have a difficult time understanding how they would actually benefit.
Self interest is obviously not the only thing people care about. You can appeal to other concepts as well. Concepts such as:
The solution to this problem is simple in theory but most likely difficult in practice. The goal is to get your audience to make a connection between something they don't yet care about with something that they most likely do care about. The tricky part is finding out what your audience would in general care about. One of the safest bets is self interest. People generally care about themselves and gaining personal benefits. If possible, you should focus on what kinds of benefits your audience has to gain. Additionally, the potential benefits should be described in tangible and non-abstract terms that people can easily relate to. If they are unable to properly visualize the potential personal gains, they are going to have a difficult time understanding how they would actually benefit.
Self interest is obviously not the only thing people care about. You can appeal to other concepts as well. Concepts such as:
- sense of learning
- sense of security and safety
- sense of self (i.e. realizing one's potential and improving oneself)
- sense of belonging and social acceptance
- self esteem (i.e. being competent, succeeding, gaining approval, etc).
The difficult part is figuring out which of these concepts (or combination of concepts) will connect the most effectively with your audience.
Let's consider applying self-interest and sense of security:
- You are the communications director in a politician's office and you are tasked with getting the constituents in your Representative's district to get more involved and attend community meetings. The Representative holds a community meeting every month and the turnout has been lower than expected. Your goal is to increase the turnout for future meetings. This next part is probably wishful thinking but let's assume you stumbled upon survey data that sampled the constituents in the Representative's district. According to the survey, the top issues that seem to be on people's minds deal with public safety and economic development (i.e. JOBS!).
Given the information that you possess, your outreach message should absolutely incorporate public safety and jobs. Your message should be simple, clear, and straight to the point: "Are you interested in finding out how safe your streets are? Do you care about employment opportunities in your district? Attend the Congressman's community meeting on the 29th to find out about these issues and much more."
The emphasis is on the constituent (the audience), not the Representative. Often times, in these situations, elected officials emphasize their own accomplishments instead of primarily focusing on the direct benefits for their constituents. They obviously cover the benefits as well but their "hook" is showing off the elected official's accomplishments first and foremost. In this example, we took a different approach and quickly highlighted the issues that the constituents care about. We also utilized a bit of mystery and created a gap in their knowledge. If they want to find out the most current information on the issues that they care about, then they better attend this meeting.
Tapping into what your audience cares about is a straightforward and obvious idea but it can easily be forgotten and ignored if not explicitly acknowledged and kept in mind when crafting messages.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Build Your Cred
In a previous entry, I discussed the importance of getting to the core of an idea and prioritizing the most important information. As it turns out, this isn't always effective. In instances when you need to look credible, prioritizing and shortening is not the best idea because it can crumble your credibility. If you are dealing with an audience that might be suspicious of your expertise and credentials, one way to counteract this is to craft a message that is thorough and full of vivid details.
This strategy makes sense on an intuitive level. Consider the last time you heard someone speak and how impressed you were with their knowledge. More likely than not, the individual that was able to provide the most details was probably seen as more credible. When someone provides a lot of details, the audience gets the (valid) impression that the individual is well-read and he has done thorough research on the topic that he's discussing. The presenter could potentially be a great liar and be able to give a false impression of expertise. But, even then, his strategy has worked because he has effectively used vivid details to prove his supposed credibility.
Consider this example of a consultant giving advice to a residential homeowner or a building operator on how go green when it comes to operations and maintenance. Contrast these two approaches that the consultant can take to prove his expertise and credibility.
Situation A)
Consultant: One of the primary areas to focus on for indoor issues is improving air quality. There are many ways this can be done.
Situation B)
Consultant: One of the primary areas to focus on for indoor issues is improving air quality. This can be done by cleaning your air conditioning and heating filters every month, making sure your filters have a "MERV" rating of 8 and higher, and using seals and coatings with low VOC content.
The first message is clear and understandable but it definitely does not establish credibility because the consultant hasn't said anything that seems like specialized, technical, or "insider" knowledge. He is lacking any real details that would prove his expertise or hint at his extensive knowledge. The second message is more technical and confusing for someone not familiar with indoor air quality issues. However, this is not a problem because the priority was to establish credibility. Once credibility is established, the consultant can continue to simplify and define his terms and break down technical jargon.
Being thorough and detailed right off the bat can throw people off and muddle your message but sometimes this is necessary if the primary goal is to gain credibility and win your audience over. This is especially important for individuals that don't have years of experience to support them. These people have to prove their worth from the very beginning and show their audience (which includes potential clients) that they are knowledgeable, dedicated, and competent enough to get the job done.
This strategy makes sense on an intuitive level. Consider the last time you heard someone speak and how impressed you were with their knowledge. More likely than not, the individual that was able to provide the most details was probably seen as more credible. When someone provides a lot of details, the audience gets the (valid) impression that the individual is well-read and he has done thorough research on the topic that he's discussing. The presenter could potentially be a great liar and be able to give a false impression of expertise. But, even then, his strategy has worked because he has effectively used vivid details to prove his supposed credibility.
Consider this example of a consultant giving advice to a residential homeowner or a building operator on how go green when it comes to operations and maintenance. Contrast these two approaches that the consultant can take to prove his expertise and credibility.
Situation A)
Consultant: One of the primary areas to focus on for indoor issues is improving air quality. There are many ways this can be done.
Situation B)
Consultant: One of the primary areas to focus on for indoor issues is improving air quality. This can be done by cleaning your air conditioning and heating filters every month, making sure your filters have a "MERV" rating of 8 and higher, and using seals and coatings with low VOC content.
The first message is clear and understandable but it definitely does not establish credibility because the consultant hasn't said anything that seems like specialized, technical, or "insider" knowledge. He is lacking any real details that would prove his expertise or hint at his extensive knowledge. The second message is more technical and confusing for someone not familiar with indoor air quality issues. However, this is not a problem because the priority was to establish credibility. Once credibility is established, the consultant can continue to simplify and define his terms and break down technical jargon.
Being thorough and detailed right off the bat can throw people off and muddle your message but sometimes this is necessary if the primary goal is to gain credibility and win your audience over. This is especially important for individuals that don't have years of experience to support them. These people have to prove their worth from the very beginning and show their audience (which includes potential clients) that they are knowledgeable, dedicated, and competent enough to get the job done.
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Source: http://aviationandaccessories.tpub.com/TM-55-4920-429-13/img/TM-55-4920-429-13_114_1.jpg What is this image showing? I have no idea. But, it sure looks detailed and I am more likely to trust the person that made it than someone who isn't able to create and explain such schematics. |
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Statistics? *Yawn*
One of the primary difficulties in being persuasive and making a lasting impression on your audience (especially among experienced professionals) is not being viewed as credible. To counteract this drawback, you can boost your perceived credibility by referencing statistics. Unfortunately, people's eyes glaze over and they stop paying attention as soon as you start reciting rows of numbers. Think of the last time you were reading an article, a study, or a book and you came upon a page full of charts, graphs, tables, or numbers. Even though I have taken statistics courses, I unfortunately find myself skipping over these sections so I can get to the conclusions and interpretations section. Is a part of this my fault for being lazy and not wanting to think hard? Yes, it is. But, I believe another major aspect of the issue is how statistics are actually presented.
There is a proper way of presenting statistics that has a much higher chance of connecting with your audience and making a lasting impression. To do this, you must present statistics in a more "human" way and place the numbers in contexts that non-statisticians would be familiar with. You must use everyday examples that people are familiar with and utilize their intuition by incorporating scales and relationships that they will understand and be able to relate with.
As I've discussed in previous entries, analogies and concrete examples are effective tools for connecting with your audience and tapping into their intuitive visual abilities. These strategies are especially important when dealing with numbers because most of us don't get much practice with interpreting quantitative data. During the rare times that we do find ourselves in such a situation, we are often too stubborn or embarrassed to admit our numerical illiteracy.
To drive these points home, consider a recent commercial by Toyota for the Camry:
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxIHC2sM5P0
Here is the relevant quote from the actor in the ad:
Actor: "The reinvented 2012 Camry Hybrid is rated at 43 miles on the gallon. That's the length of two football fields that are each 21 and a half miles long. Just to put that in perspective for you."
The actor then grabs hold of a gallon of milk and starts drinking it. This tactic is meant to emphasize the original statistic even more and allow people to visualize how much a gallon actually is. The ad connects that small amount of milk to the length of two football fields. It's attempting to use scales and visuals that most people will hopefully be familiar with.
This ad is a simple example but I believe it effectively showcases what I initially discussed. Numbers must be placed in a familiar perspective or else your audience isn't going to make the effort to truly understand their meaning and scale.
Environmentalists can also apply these lessons to properly communicate environmental problems such as the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Often times, when this issue is discussed, the authors describe the size of the plastic debris by comparing it to the size of Texas or some other incredibly large area that people can't effectively visualize.
Case in point:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
"The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas."
To remedy this, other units of measurements can be used. For instance, football fields and skyscrapers are objects that most people would be more familiar with and can more effectively visualize. The size of the garbage pile can be discussed in these terms instead. Large objects such as these are still not as human-friendly as smaller objects such as houses, cars, and tennis balls but using these is still an improvement over what is currently done.
Having said all this, you must keep in mind who your audience is. If you are dealing with technical and quantitative experts who live and breathe numbers every day then your attempts at making statistics more relateable and human-friendly are going to be a waste of time. Your efforts might even backfire because these experts might think you are questioning their competence and level of quantitative expertise. The strategies covered here are more relevant when dealing with individuals outside the quantitative fields. These tactics can be effective with people who don't consistently deal with numbers in a thorough and meaningful manner.
There is a proper way of presenting statistics that has a much higher chance of connecting with your audience and making a lasting impression. To do this, you must present statistics in a more "human" way and place the numbers in contexts that non-statisticians would be familiar with. You must use everyday examples that people are familiar with and utilize their intuition by incorporating scales and relationships that they will understand and be able to relate with.
As I've discussed in previous entries, analogies and concrete examples are effective tools for connecting with your audience and tapping into their intuitive visual abilities. These strategies are especially important when dealing with numbers because most of us don't get much practice with interpreting quantitative data. During the rare times that we do find ourselves in such a situation, we are often too stubborn or embarrassed to admit our numerical illiteracy.
To drive these points home, consider a recent commercial by Toyota for the Camry:
Here is the relevant quote from the actor in the ad:
Actor: "The reinvented 2012 Camry Hybrid is rated at 43 miles on the gallon. That's the length of two football fields that are each 21 and a half miles long. Just to put that in perspective for you."
The actor then grabs hold of a gallon of milk and starts drinking it. This tactic is meant to emphasize the original statistic even more and allow people to visualize how much a gallon actually is. The ad connects that small amount of milk to the length of two football fields. It's attempting to use scales and visuals that most people will hopefully be familiar with.
This ad is a simple example but I believe it effectively showcases what I initially discussed. Numbers must be placed in a familiar perspective or else your audience isn't going to make the effort to truly understand their meaning and scale.
Environmentalists can also apply these lessons to properly communicate environmental problems such as the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Often times, when this issue is discussed, the authors describe the size of the plastic debris by comparing it to the size of Texas or some other incredibly large area that people can't effectively visualize.
Case in point:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
"The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California; scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas."
To remedy this, other units of measurements can be used. For instance, football fields and skyscrapers are objects that most people would be more familiar with and can more effectively visualize. The size of the garbage pile can be discussed in these terms instead. Large objects such as these are still not as human-friendly as smaller objects such as houses, cars, and tennis balls but using these is still an improvement over what is currently done.
Having said all this, you must keep in mind who your audience is. If you are dealing with technical and quantitative experts who live and breathe numbers every day then your attempts at making statistics more relateable and human-friendly are going to be a waste of time. Your efforts might even backfire because these experts might think you are questioning their competence and level of quantitative expertise. The strategies covered here are more relevant when dealing with individuals outside the quantitative fields. These tactics can be effective with people who don't consistently deal with numbers in a thorough and meaningful manner.
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About Me

- Vahagn Karapetyan
- The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right. -Vincent van Gogh