The more I think of it I find this conclusion more impressed upon me – that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.”
– John Ruskin
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Miller’s law, part of his theory of communication, was formulated by George Miller, Princeton Professor and psychologist.
It instructs us to suspend judgment about what someone is saying so we can first understand them without imbuing their message with our own personal interpretations.
The law states: “To understand what another person is saying, you must assume that it is true and try to imagine what it could be true of.”[1] [2]
The point is not to blindly accept what people say, but to do a better job of listening for understanding. “Imagining what it could be true of” is another way of saying to consider the consequences of the truth, but to also think about what must be true for the speaker’s “truth” to make sense.
Also called:
The “Children Are Starving In Africa!” Argument.
Fallacy of relative privation (its proper name).
Arguing that expressing concern about a (relatively) small problem means that the person doesn’t care about any larger problems. A …
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