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I did read that relativization, it just didn't pass through my bullshit filter.

This is because of a lifetime of managers telling me things like "before we do this thing that you want to do, please first conduct a fact-finding mission to consider the possibility that we don't actually need to do it". My mental bullshit filter turns that into just "no".

That's because the fact-finding thing only has two possible outcomes: I come back with evidence to support their no-position in which case: great job on that fact-finding. Or I come back with evidence to support my yes-position, in which case, guess what, there's something wrong with my fact-finding. Then they decide "no" based on their preconceived notion, plus they get to look very reasonable and evidence-driven. -- Conversely, a "yes" always looks very different. It's always "yes" from the start.



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