So there's news of this girl going around that she said (into a mic, in front of the media and press) that she's not proud to be Singaporean.
Here's her "defence"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydANJ5qLHG4&feature=youtu.be
I'm not really here to argue her points, because the only thing that really really rattled my brain (other than the actual main point that I'm going to talk about later) is, Is Australia's Minimum Wage really $20/hour. Because we're working at $7 or $8 per hour and Small/ Medium firm employers are already struggling to make ends meet.
Anyway, aside from that, I want to talk about convincing people. All my education has trained me to tear apart arguments and pick at them in bits and pieces as well as as a whole to figure out if they are actually making sense. Usually that aspect of picking things apart alone will be enough to convince me whether someone is really making a solid point or just talking bullshit. But recently, I've been more and more exposed to (or just suddenly aware of) people sounding "immature" while simultaneously making a good point. Now, when I say "immature", I don't necessarily mean sounding naive or childish (even though that certainly fits into the category), I mean more like they reveal aspects of their personality that either turns off me or a certain part of their audience or just sound like they have a reason or agenda to convince me of a certain thing.
This video has a few solid points, no doubt. But something, not exactly her "fuck you" attitude (which I normally respect), seems to be holding me back from fully embracing her ideas and going "Hell Yeah!!"
Here's a way to sort of visualize what I'm talking about. Imagine there is a sliding scale where the left means I'm completely unconvinced and the right being the opposite. But instead of a standard one-marker scale, there are 2 markers connected by a string. Typically, a good communicator would make good points (not necessarily ones that I agree with, just ones that sound well-rounded or well-argued) would push 1 marker to the right while leaving the other without moving, thus leaving the string slack, easily convincing me of what he's saying. The opposite would be a terrible person making stupid or racist remarks, which pushes 1 marker to the left without really making any good attempts at arguing and leaving the other marker not moving.Again, the string is slack and I'm easily convinced that this guy is a retard.
This video does something different. The good points that she makes pushes it easily to the right, but her tiny bit of attitude and her lots of bits of arrogance pushes the other marker to the left. Thus the string becomes tight and has a lot of tension. Now, I'm uneasy one way or the other.
I just find this interesting because it made me think about communication like that.
