Sunday December 8, 2024

Value And Perception

This baseball card just sold for $12.6 million.  One wonders why. It is a piece of cardboard covered in ink on one side, and it was originally sold in a package of bubble gum.  Apparently the buyer values rarity and is willing to pay for it.  It will be interesting when the buyer sells the […]

Perception Can Kill

Police in Sacramento, CA shot down a black man who appeared to be carrying a weapon.  It was a cell phone.  The officers on the scene mistook the black slab of a cell for the barrel of a gun.  It was a case of biased perception.  Patrolmen are taught to respond quickly to danger.  They […]

Perception Turns

Robert Mueller has been a relentless investigator of Russian meddling in US elections and held in high respect.  Now, with one act, the perception has turned to that of a man out of control.  This stems from the seizure of thousands of transition team e-mails from the GSA.  Such correspondence is not considered part of […]

False Perception

There has been a rise in pick-it-yourself farms and these have given a false perception of what it is to work in agriculture.  Real farm work can be brutal and exhausting.  There is no easy way to pick strawberries, for example, other than backbending labor that makes standing up agonizing.  The pick-it-yourself farms minimize the […]

Perception V. Reality

There are places in the US where unemployment seems embedded, but the reality is that the idle choose not to take available jobs  – like lawn mowing.  That work is reserved for immigrants who don’t mind doing it.  Where I live, nearly all landscapers are Italian but the workforce is Hispanic — day laborers who […]

Perception

From everyone’s favorite TV father to an aged, bleary-eyed sexual predator, it has been quite a come-down for Bill Cosby.  It is also a prime example of the power of perception.  The public projected onto the man the wise father act that he delivered on TV.  There was nothing at the time to gainsay the […]

Science Vs. Perception

In a court of law, perception can overcome science.  What is unsettled in the investigation community becomes a judgement resting on the slimmest pretexts of fact.  Consider this case.  There is no definitive proof that talc-based baby powders cause cancer, but a jury thought so and awarded $72 million to a family whose mother had […]

Polls And Perception

It was news yesterday that Hillary Clinton’s polling numbers had dropped. There were fretting and warnings about her future as a presidential candidate.  Some had the good sense to note that early polls don’t mean much.  The electorate hasn’t focused on the 2016 elections.  The fear is that the perception of weakness with voters might be enough for […]

Perception, Perception

President Obama has talked with the Dalai Lama.  China is incensed.  After all, China owns Tibet fair and square after invading it.  The only ones who have protested this perception are Tibetans who foolishly think they have a right to their country.  The Chinese government, if it wanted to make the point, could say the […]

The Power Of Positive Perception

PR deals with perception.  How some one or an organization is viewed is a preoccupation of counselors.  Leaders too are aware of what others think.  They know that many have false perceptions of them for the good and some for the bad.  They try to instill the correct perceptions so they can get things done. […]