So lets talk about comparing things…the case of two friends comparing two things .
You say ‘A’ is better and your friend says ‘B’ is better ! Now what’s really better??
Now one obvious way of comparing two things is to,
- note down all important attributes of ‘A’ and ‘B’
- compare the attributes
- declare the winner as the one which has most number of favorable or better attributes.
Now how can you decide which attribute is better? They can sometimes be outright facts !
For example we have a comparison between Tea and Vodka !!
If we take the attribute of healthiness, tea wins vodka hands down.Does that make Tea a better drink?No ways !! We have various attributes under various circumstances !Analyzing them all and arriving at an agreeable judgment is next to impossible!!
Things get really interesting when the friend supporting Tea has never drunk Vodka and the friend supporting Vodka has never drunk tea
Now neither will concede that their drink is not better . So we have a problem on comparison !
Please note that,
- we are dealing with comparison of TWO things only
- Argument is among two friends with no other living soul nearby to take sides or provide judgment
Now how can these two people really come up with a judgment !! Confusing? Here’s a simple way !
Suggest a new item belonging to the same category in which ‘A’ and ‘B’ falls.Let’s say that is ‘C’ Choose ‘C’ such that both friends have experience or encounter with ‘C’ before. If ‘A’ is better than ‘C’ and ‘B’ is worse than ‘C’ then ‘A’ wins.
For example, The friends choose Coffee as ‘C’. Friend supporting Tea says that Tea is better than Coffee, while friend supporting Vodka says that Coffee is better than Vodka. This makes Tea as the Winner. Both friends should accept it
But in most cases what happens is,
- the one supporting ‘A’ tells ‘A’ is better than ‘C’ and the one supporting ‘B’ tells ‘B’ is better than ‘C’… and in very very rare cases
- both friends agree ‘C’ is better than both ‘A’ and ‘B’
In situations 1 and 2 we cannot arrive at a judgment! So what to be done?? Choose different ‘C’ and repeat the process..Continue until you get a judgment or a friend gets dejected or irritated (like how you are after reading this utterly meaningless piece of blog post
)
Thanks for reading this patiently !!
I promise you that my next blog post wont be as irritating as this one !