I tell my students that all I ask for is that they speak the truth to me. You see, we all make decisions based on the information given to us, and if it's not based on truth, nobody arrives at a good destination except by chance. Whatever is true as you understand it, give it to me. That way I won't waste any time.
During graduate school, I made a great nuisance of myself. When I attended conferences or seminars, I would question the validity of the results based on their usefulness in future research. By that time, I had seen people fabricate data, hide outliers, and steal other people's work, and so if I was going to base the next 3-5 years of my life on someone else's work, I needed to be confident of how they arrived at their conclusions. I suspect they were not after truth like they wanted me to believe.
The story is told of a certain airline flight from New Zealand to Antarctica in 1979. When the plane left, the directions were off by just two degrees. This took them 28 miles from where they were expected to be. During the flight, because it was snowing and the ground was covered with snow, it was difficult to see anything. As they searched for land markers that were miles away because of the error in degrees, they did not notice the altimeter. They were flying towards a volcano, and by the time the alarm klaxon blared, the ground had risen to meet them. All aboard were killed or froze to death before search crews found the site.
One of my students used to work on a survey crew. Survey teams placed marker monuments every exact amount of feet. Some of the people who did the work were not very good, and you can tell when you look at the streets in Las Vegas, which is the width they travel before they do a correction based on the stars, that they made errors when laying out the streets. The north-south survey markers are all corrected at Charleston Blvd, and Bonanza Road jogs oddly towards the north against the far east of the valley. I know that Frenchman Mountain is dangerous. I have climbed the face once. I also know that we based our decisions on the assumption that those who came before us did a good job.
Such is not always the case. About a year ago, while climbing Turtlehead Peak at Redrock NCA, my friend and I decided to kick over a bunch of trail markers. It was our third trip to the top, and the trail marked by these people was the most difficult pathway we had ever taken. It was dangerous, more work, and took great detours, making this strenuous hike even more difficult. Just because someone has been there before doesn't mean they got there a good way.
Over the last few years, I have come to the conclusion that truth is not only the best policy, it is the only policy. It might hurt you up front, but if you are not honest up front, it will certainly hurt you later on, and in ways you cannot anticipate. This is why I ask people to give me truth. I told my students a few weeks ago that I don't care so much how or what they believe just as long as they do. If they own it, then we can move forward from there, but if I respond to something that isn't true, it won't help.
Take for example two of my students this semester. I already wrote about the girl who requested remedial credit. There was another fellow who missed the first quiz. He came to me in class the next time and said "I know there's no way I can make up the quiz, but can I get a copy of it so I know what to study?" I handed it to him without thinking. The first girl wanted makeup work, to compensate for poor performance. The fellow owned the fact that he scored a zero.
Similarly, too many people avoid the truth in every aspect of life. I attempted several times to date women who want to play games. I worked with people who want to get paid without working. People want equal outcomes regardless of input. You know the exchange. The guy asks, "what's wrong?" to which the answer comes "nothing", and then it escalates and you're off course 28 miles and you crash.
I don't do hints; I do truth. I am not on a crusade to be right or be the one who gives all truth. If there is one lesson that can be learned from this blog is that as I gain truth my perception of things changes. Too many people lost knowledge as they gain information and lose wisdom as they gain knowledge. Wisdom seems to be a search for and application of truth. It isn't learning from mistakes in itself- it is in the fact that the learning experience opened your eyes to truth you did not see or could not see.
Give me truth. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. That's the only way I know to guide you as best to where you claim you intend to arrive. It's certainly the only way I know to really live.
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