The Power of the Written Word
September 3, 2008 – 6:11 am
Apparently in the 1960’s the TV show Candid Camera setup a prank that involved a huge billboard that read “Delaware Closed” on the border of the state of Delaware. They also positioned some professional looking gentlemen in suits near the sign to answer questions.
Of course some people drove on by, but others stopped and asked questions. When will Delaware be open again? Is New Jersey open?
What’s the point? The written word holds power over us. We are much more likely to believe something that is clearly posted and written in front of us. This influences our lives in hundreds of ways, including:
- Hotels posting their check-in and check-out times
- Stores posting their minimum purchase amounts to use credit cards (which violates the visa and mastercard terms of service, by the way)
- financial planners create 50-page documents outlining the best strategy for your investments with fancy graphs, “likely” scenarios, etc.?
Please beware of what you read! This is as true for this blog as it is for advertising material and books. There are a lot of different ways to do things, and I worry about people like my parents who pick up one book and start to think that everything in that book is true. We all need to learn more before jumping into action.
There are hundreds of ways to invest, and there are hundreds of way to lose weight. Yet most people have trouble doing either one well. Please test your sources and read several different ideas or recommendations before making a decision.
Image Credit: jurvetson
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4 Responses to “The Power of the Written Word”
You are right about 50 page reports, in fact, throw in some greek mathematical symbols and complex investment jargon, and the report is worth millions.
By
jeflin (Who am I?) on Sep 3, 2008
You are absolutely correct about how careful we should be with not only what we read but what we write. I am constantly amazed at how many people will not even bother to question what is placed in front of them and accept as fact items that are clearly questionable.
By
DnDCorner (Who am I?) on Sep 4, 2008
I see a great deal of this at work, since I work at—-a library. On the one side, there’s fiction. Hopefully nobody believe that. But our nonfiction section has all kinds of disagreements with itself. We have a huge section on personal finance and you’ll get a book advocating daytrading (it’s from 1999) and then something by Bogle or his cohorts.
I hope seeing all those disagreeing books leads people to think carefully about what they read, since there isn’t a consensus.
By
Mrs. Micah (Who am I?) on Sep 7, 2008