If you want to do well with your business, you’ve got to be superior at spotting nonsense and recognizing crap when you hear it. Strive to develop a well-honed B.S. meter. Without one, you waste time and squander opportunities. With one, you avoid time wasting tangents, useless fire drills and other time sinks.
If want to enhance your B.S. spotting skills, you should do the following things.
Determine what serves the speaker’s self-interest
Image: Joe Houghton via Flickr
Whenever someone is presenting a point of view, you owe it to yourself to consider how their opinion
might correlate to their own self-interest. After all, there must be some reason they have to make the
argument to you in the first place. And that reason more likely correlates with their own self-interest
than with yours.
So make sure the speaker’s self-interest does not skew their point of view. If it does, at least be
cognizant of it so you can value the opinion appropriately. Of course, in some situations a person’s
motivation for their position may increase the validity of their opinion. But take a step back and
make sure you know where the speaker is “coming from” before you act based on their presentation.
Question the data
We live in a world of pseudo science, skewed sample sets and anonymous experts. Don’t accept
anything as an important truth without first examining the source. The magic of PowerPoint is, in part,
its ability to build charts without underlying data.
The competitive comparison slide, either in a feature check box or X-Y positioning graph style, is
frequently created to maximize the slide creators’ position without a scintilla of independent support.
Make sure data is cited and the source valid before you incorporate the data as part of your truths.
Listen for name dropping
If someone immediately or continually drops the name(s) of high profile people, it is worthy of suspicion.
Credibility should always be derived from the strength of the argument, known facts and/or the
reputation of the person present. If absent prominent people are the backbone of an argument,
you should be suspect.
Notice confusion in response to logical counterpoints
Image: Adam Selwood via Flickr
Once you offer a good counter argument, people who are misleading you intentionally may exhibit
complete confusion. It is often an effective response. The counterpoint, while obvious and logical to
you is too contradictory or nonsensical to the bullshiter to be comprehensible.
“What, you say?” is the response or something that boomerangs your thought without reacting to
its merit. This type of response is meant to undermine your confidence in the soundness of your
counter argument without seeking to specifically or factually oppose the point itself. Watch out for
confusion when there should be none.
