Analogy Of The 20 Titanic Lifeboats

[Steve]

If people don't understand it's because it's poorly written or ambiguous. If you have something to say then just say it, no need to hide meanings in analogies, analogies are supposed to make things clear, not confuse people.

[bigpaul]

yeah, I thought it was above most people pay grades! not Johns fault.

[Mortblanc]

One of the things you come to realize as an educator is that anything you say can be misunderstood and misinterpreted. You have to repeat lessons over and over. You make statements of fact, some will understand, then you use an analogy, some more will grasp the concept, then you state the fact again to insure everyone had the chance. Then you move to the next part of the lesson.

The fact that everyone did not learn the lesson is not a personal insult. It is based on a combination of intelligence and concern.

Some are fast and perceive immediately, some need an alternative method, others are not paying any attention and do not care. And others hear you, understand you, and simply think you are wrong. Then there are the folks that think you are talking about something else entirely and miss the whole point.

And sometimes you simply pick a bad analogy.

[bigpaul]

don't shoot the messenger just because you didn't understand the message. like John said he is willing to discuss it privately if anybody is the tiny bit bothered.

[Steve]

Surely, simply by belonging to this forum, we have demonstrated that we are the people who would have counted the lifeboats before we bought tickets, and stayed at home.

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I've counted lifeboats, concluded that there aren't enough, and currently live on mine - far from centre of the ship.

I hope that analogy is clear.

[Mortblanc]

Continuing that analogy, there is a big difference between a lifeboat and a personal flotation device!

[Steve]

(31 March 2015, 00:47)Mortblanc Wrote: Continuing that analogy, there is a big difference between a lifeboat and a personal flotation device!

Very good

You can't get your whole family in a lifejacket.

[John]

Well seeing you are loving this lifeboat anology so much I thought I would take it a step further and see what you think of this.

ANOLOGY
A big ship is safer than a small life boat; therefore, you should only man the life boats and leave the big ship if you are pretty sure that it will really sink. Even a big ship in trouble is far more stable, has more resources, and can better stand a storm, than small life boats.

My viewpoint would be, that we are on a ship that may potentially get in big trouble, but that is still not yet sinking, it is not even really damaged yet. If you leave the ship now, the ship will sail on, leaving you behind, all on your own. The big ship may collide with an iceberg and sink, but it is far better prepared to sail through a heavy storm than a small life boat.

Let's keep working the analogy.
"Manning" the lifeboats is at least one step before "deploying" the lifeboats. If and when it becomes clear you should abandon ship, you want to be near or on a lifeboat. The other choice will be standing at the back in the crowd pressing to get a seat on a boat precisely at the moment it becomes clear to everyone that the lifeboats need to deploy and the ship needs to be abandoned. Hope you are a good swimmer!
So for me, "manning" the lifeboat means taking what small, hard earned wealth I possess now and either purchasing some property alone or with others. This property needs to be usable to at least provide subsistence agriculture. Where I live, these kinds of properties are already rising in value faster than other real estate. As a lifeboat it need not ever float completely on its own until the ship crashes and starts going down. If the ship is only listing and struggling, we will still be tethered and floating alongside.

Will this little lifeboat be able to float on its own? That could be the hard test. Waiting until it is desperately needed to float to begin learning how to sail and test its sea worthiness would be an extremely stressful and risky plan in my way of thinking. So my suggestion to anyone else who is planning to have a little boat similar as me, take all the "sailing" lessons you can now with your own agricultural efforts, however big or small. Gather all the hard earned advice you can from the old seafaring salts.

If others take this course of action then maybe, just maybe, my lifeboat tethered together with other lifeboats might just manage to come through the storm.
What I'm sure about, is that for my family and those close to me, I don't want to have our only choice to be "swimming lessons". And waiting for those lessons to begin at the time when we need to be exiting the ship and leaving shark infested waters for the nearest rock or shore.

"Again, in that day each little tribe will live by itself and to itself and go its own way, and their differences will soon be more than they were even in the first days of [humankind], according to the accidents of survival and of place... In the distant years after these first years, the tribes will grow more numerous and come together, cross fertilize in the body and in mind."
- George R Stewart, Earth Abides (1949)

[bigpaul]

Sorry John, all this "lifeboat" analogy is doing my head in, I liked it better when you put everything in plain language and said what you meant.

[Steve]

Translation: Buy a smallholding and keep working while you still can.

Steve ( smallholder and boatbuilder ).