Monday, January 23, 2012

Reductionist definitionism


Zhi questions Jiang on his character over mah jong.

Zhi:You must read Malcolm Gladwell.
Jiang: Tipping point? I have. I liked it.
Zhi: So which are you: a connector, a maven or a salesman?
Jiang: Meaning?
Zhi: Connector, meaning people who carefully keep up even casual social connections. Maven, meaning someone who has lots of information about products and deals. Or salesmen, who persuade people of something they are doubtful about.
Jiang: I’m an extreme form of none of them. I know a few people, I know something about my job, when needed I can persuade someone to do something.
Zhi: You’re a generalist?
Jiang: I’m a reductive definitionist. I can explain things simply.

__________
Voice-over
Jiang has a talent for summarizing in a few everyday words. The skill might be called reductionist definitionism. He calls himself a reductive definitionist.
But Jiang is not only this.
His whole is more than the sum of his parts. He is also a professional mah jong player.
...

2 comments:

rolenzo said...

Absolutely lovely post. Stimulates me to pursue my investigation of [secret topic]. Ha! But never fear, reductionist will be the key adjective...or noun.

You may be bemused by this interview: http://observermedia.designobserver.com/video/malcolm-gladwell/32388/
Which I dub 'inflationary distractionist'.

respectfully, sir,
rol3nzo
inflationary reductionist

Barry Natusch said...

Visual Design Matters is an excellent reference Rol3nzo! TQ, TQ!

There are many quotable quotes in the discussion.

I nodded three times when Malcolm said, “Storytelling is fuelled by fear, the fear of losing the audience, how do I keep them engaged? Can illustrations help keep the reader engaged?”

Could Rol3nzo be working on a secret project involving "reductionist illustrations" I wonder?