Post relocated to odedniv.me/blog/shower/definition-of-gray-area, go there for an updated version.
“It’s not black and white” is the best clue to someone’s lack of knowledge.
How far is it between the tip of your nose and the screen? Something between 40cm and 50cm (or is it by inch, foot, or arm)? You figure the screen is not behind you so it must be a positive number. It’s not a couple of meters because you can reach it with your hands but your hands can’t touch the floor when you stand, so it can’t be taller than you. This goes on until you reach the point where you need a ruler to achieve higher accuracy. You know there is an exact answer but you don’t know what it is, so you give an estimate.
A simpler example is the result of 523 multiplied by 6. You can easily tell that it’s about 3,000 because of the 5 and the 6, but you’d need to go into more details to figure out the exact result, that you know must exist.
Disregarding the specific analytic, to reach a conclusion you figure out which variables are in the equation, find some of them, and then fill the missing ones with imaginary data — hence the range (aka an opinion).
So how do you know that an exact answer exist? Because you know these types of problems, you’re used to them. Imagine someone came from a place without rulers, that had never seen numbers. He might say “It’s something between the length of my arm and the length of my leg”, and he might even believe there is no exact distance — maybe because it can’t be measured, or maybe because it depends on the one who measures. Does that sound familiar? If not, here’s one you can relate to:
How many right ways are there to spend tax money of a certain group at a certain time? You can spend it on education, on healthcare, on roads, or on helping the weak. You can’t really have one right answer for the right distribution, right? Each person thinks differently, so there are probably multiple correct choices.
There’s the common mistake. For every problem there is one right solution, and in this case right means best. There is one best solution, which makes all other solutions not as good. Five people may have 5 different opinions, but if one of them read all the researches, made all the surveys, and found out all the missing variables — they will not set a range, there will be no gray area for them, they will have the exact and only answer — just like the result of the square of 2. For him it will be black and white — one option that he knows to be best, and the rest that he knows to be worst.
The above philosophy seem to conflict with the common phrase “that’s the best solution for me”, but it does not. It simply means you are confused between different opinions and different problems. The best choice of occupation for example is different from person to person. So the best choice for you may be software engineering, while the best choice for him may be gardening.
The best solution with your variables is always the best solution with your variables, you can’t go saying “my is opinion is that I like bowling, but his opinion is that I like basketball”. There are no two equations for the same problem in the sense that the answer will always be the same answer with the same given variables, however there can be two different equations for two different problems.
Some problems, such as the tax distribution example, are obviously too complicated for us to solve: too many variables, some known but can’t be filled with the given tools (such as a perfect survey), and some unknown (such as some psychological repercussions). But bear in mind that even if you don’t know how to lay down the equation in a conceivable way (and thus produce an opinion) — it doesn’t mean there isn’t one, and if someone else says he does have one, it might be because they knows something you don’t.
But bear in mind that even though you don’t know how to lay the equation in a conceivable way, it doesn’t mean there isn’t one, and if someone else says he does have one, it might just be because he knows something you don’t.
