I get dinged by some colleagues for the fact that I don’t like definite statements that aren’t actually definite. For example: “There is no better computer than a Mac.” Sure, under a lot of circumstances that may be true but what if you are a heavy AutoCAD user? Maybe not then. What if you are allergic to OS X (if true please contact me for an interview!)?
Definite statements imply a certain course of action is always justified or that there is no gray areas. But sadly the world is made up of gray areas (I’ve been led to understand that there are exactly 50 Shades of Grey areas). Artificial certainty can be very bad. Driving behavior based on that artificial certainty can be worse. It teaches people to think inside their little box and not worry about the (sometimes common) exceptions. And ignoring exceptions leads to bad things happening.
Therefore I’m resolving to continue not letting false statements of certainty pass. So there!
I think it extends to beyond merely binary statements of preference, i.e. Macs are good PC are bad, which is grossly simplistic. I think the [50?] shades of Grey approach extends also to how we approach problems. Very rarely are there only binary solutions to a problem, one right and the other wrong. In fact I think the best of us are able to look outside that box and find a third, forth or even fifth way and very often the best solution is found lurking in those grey spaces.