This brings to my mind the character of a “Fair Witness” in Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”.
A summary: “Pure Observation: A Fair Witness is trained to observe events and report strictly what they see and hear without adding assumptions, opinions, or extrapolation.”
Famous Example (also my memory from reading the book): When asked to describe the color of a distant house, a Fair Witness will typically reply, “It appears to be painted white on this side” rather than saying the house is white all the way around.
As someone who thinks with an “engineering mind”, I really enjoy that level of precision and objectivity.
The longer I live and the more I learn, the more often I find answers need to begin with the caveat “it depends.”
This brings to my mind the character of a “Fair Witness” in Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”.
A summary: “Pure Observation: A Fair Witness is trained to observe events and report strictly what they see and hear without adding assumptions, opinions, or extrapolation.”
Famous Example (also my memory from reading the book): When asked to describe the color of a distant house, a Fair Witness will typically reply, “It appears to be painted white on this side” rather than saying the house is white all the way around.
As someone who thinks with an “engineering mind”, I really enjoy that level of precision and objectivity.