The Analogy Way

While illustrating tone of good customer service -

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Trainer 1: You must please your customers with every transaction. Make them smile, be courteous. Show them that they are important to us.

Esa

Trainer 2: I was listening to Irfan Khan's (actor - Bollywood) interview and the interviewer asked him, if given a choice, who would you work with - Deepa Nair or Danny Boyle (both directors). Irfan: well, definitely whosoever gives me more importance and time!

Coach 1 to wicket-keeper: crouch behind the striker and stay ready for the ball to be hit, you have to make sure that the batsman is out.

Coach 2 to wicket-keeper: you are to the team as 'Stripey the Cub' to 'Save Our Tigers' campaign; i.e., very essential. So, crouch behind the striker and don't miss the ball.

The examples above are to expose the difference between explaining and explaining with an analogy. In his book, 'Analogy as Structure and Process', Esa Itkonen emphasizes that 'analogy is a central concept of language and linguistics'.

Now you may ask - Why analogies work?

The answer quite simply put - Aren't you more likely to buy a product for which you have seen an advertisement or heard from someone? Am sure the answer would be yes, moreover,

...analogies help you in building connections...

...the listener remembers the marrow for a very long time...

...they sound out of the box and are very stimulating...

I completely agree with Dudley Malone that "One good analogy is worth three hours of discussion."

The Analogy Way

Esa

Is Plato's Cave a Good Analogy?

Have you read about Plato's Cave Analogy? If not it maybe worthy to learn about, you see, Plato's Cave Concept is a good analogy of life in my opinion. It is similar to the concept of VR-Virtual Reality, The Ten Mirror Theory, or the projection concept; Life is all a TV movie theory.

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We all know the story of the three blind men describing an elephant. All these help us understand that we should know how little we know. We have seen Hollywood take this whole thing to the next step and offer some what ifs worthy of thought as well such as the Movie the Matrix or the Tom Cruise Movie; Vanilla Sky. Remember the Truman Show -fake town, fake everything all on TV.

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Imagine going beyond that and seeing the truth. That would be excellent and it is therefore worthy to discuss Plato's Cave Analogy. A virtual reality life simulator could be a greater teacher for mankind or whatever we are, came from or are going to. For some life is a competitive event and until they see otherwise, they play it as a participant and thus play it to the best of there ability.

Think of a Bee or Insect and how it sees things with different sensory input. Perception is an interesting thing to a Bat, Dolphin, squid, etc. It maybe worthy to have much thought on this subject. Plato had many interesting things to say really. I am most comfortable with nearly all of his thoughts. But would like to challenge him on others. Of course having these works now are good as one can add onto his thoughts. Perhaps you will consider this in 2006 and expand your horizons.

Is Plato's Cave a Good Analogy?

Cave