Friday, November 30, 2007

Reality Check


by Russell Towle, recommended by Koski


Dave Koski phoned recently. Whereas he's up on his Steve Baer style 120 cell decomposition of the Enneacontahedron, he's more tentative about his earlier belief in an off center rhombic dodecahedron somewhere in the mix.

Last we talked, he was still looking to reconfirm, using a combination of ZomeTool and vZome. I appreciate his commitment to an empirical approach.

And that got me thinking: getting a different angle is very essential sometimes. I'm talking about balancing, offsetting viewpoints, of which some are more generic, others more like prescription eyeglasses, designed to compensate for very specific aberrations.

Business partners, close friends, spouses, siblings, parents, colleagues, relatives are usually better positioned to offer the more customized feedback, meaning they have an individualized way of helping you see better -- each one of them makes a personalized contribution.

On the other hand, the more generic overview providers are also most welcome. It's not necessary for someone to know you, to help you. Don't always dismiss the value of help from perfect strangers -- sometimes that's really the best kind.

And sometimes you'll provide your own reality checks -- or call it the process of maturation. You revisit the same situations from new viewpoints over time, gain new insights. But if you're open to learning from others, that really can save you some time.

Followup: this just in from Dave, showing the off-center rhombic dodecahedron: