Cross posted from Howard Brickman's article on Hardwood Floors Magazine: Inspector Blog.

Is believing that something is true or correct the same as knowing that a fact is true or correct because of rigorous objective examination? Said another way, “Don’t believe everything you think.” (Bill O’Hanlon.) Does this mean that we should stop thinking? Of course not. But it means that we should develop the ability to think critically and carefully evaluate the information that is presented to us. We all know individuals who can never really make a decision as they agonize over every minute detail of a proposition, so-called “analysis paralysis.” On the other hand, we also know people who will believe anything that they read or hear. This is called being gullible. There is a sweet spot somewhere east of gullible and west of analysis paralysis that thoughtful people search for.

Consensus is an extremely important tool for facilitating agreement. How do we decide which house to buy? Or what to have for dinner? Or how do we manage our private and public institutions? But this whole consensus decision-making process is not the most effective tool for determining actual facts or scientific truth. That’s right! Just because almost everyone “agrees” on something does not necessarily make it correct. We are bombarded continuously with polling data and statistical “studies” that are surrogates for consensus. This constant repetition can be very convincing even when it is not accurate or factual. How do we sift through this avalanche of information and figure out what is true?

Be skeptical! “If you can’t make something happen, you don’t know what caused it.” (Howard Brickman.) The greatest opponents of a good experiment are unknown, uncontrolled or irrelevant variables. It is analogous with trying to pick out the important remark whispered by an individual who is part of a very noisy gathering. If you are not looking directly at them you won’t even see their lips moving. And if you are not within several inches you might not be able to distinguish the words being spoken. Even if you do hear the remark you may not realize how important it is. Scientists often refer to all of this extraneous data as “noise” that drowns out the really important stuff. Once the correct data is recognized and introduced into the collective consciousness, we forget how much effort it took to figure it out.

Don’t believe everything you hear or read on the Internet! As individuals we greatly enhance our ability to recognize good information by developing our fundamental understanding of the physical world around us. But in our wood floor business, we have the added necessity of learning about wood and psychrometrics. Develop the habit of reading and rereading “quality” source materials. That way when someone takes cow manure, forms it to the shape of an apple and paints it red, we will have enough sense to figure out what it really is before we try to make an apple pie with a bag full of bull $#!+.