Right on! AFRAID together with rice bowls are the driving forces behind new ideas. Stan Doore
----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Naughtin To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2009 8:02 PM Subject: [USMA:45448] Re: why we have a tough sell on U.S. metrication Dear Paul and All, To add to my earlier email, you might be interested in this, 100 Ways to Kill a Concept: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It includes this thought that, I think, directly applies to the metrication process: What people really mean to say, but would never openly admit is … they are innately AFRAID. Afraid of anything that is new, improved, unique, different and/or better (anything that acts like a catalyst for change) and/or things they are not familiar with and/or anything that annoys, threatens, or harms their ego, status, power, or livelihood. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide. PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. On 2009/07/27, at 4:54 AM, Paul Armstrong wrote: On 26/07/2009, at 9:49, "Paul Trusten" <trus...@grandecom.net> wrote: I fear it is going to be increasingly diffucult for us to explain to the American people why we should go metric. There might be some things we're going to have to explain first. See http://notalwaysright.com/the-building-blockheads-of-life/2255 This is the kind of person who's easy to change. Give them an actual understanding of what's going on and they put aside their misconceptions and get on with life happily. I think the only people that are difficult to convince are those who hold the exact opposite opinion to us (and most people don't hold an opinion at all). The problem is that people don't like change in general and really don't like change they don't understand. Get them to really understand metric and it's benefits and they'll help us change. Until then, we're going to continue to just talk amongst ourselves about how wonderful it would be. Paul -- http://gometric.us ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Paul and All, To add to my earlier email, you might be interested in this, 100 Ways to Kill a Concept: It includes this thought that, I think, directly applies to the metrication process: What people really mean to say, but would never openly admit is … they are innately AFRAID. Afraid of anything that is new, improved, unique, different and/or better (anything that acts like a catalyst for change) and/or things they are not familiar with and/or anything that annoys, threatens, or harms their ego, status, power, or livelihood. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide. PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. On 2009/07/27, at 4:54 AM, Paul Armstrong wrote: > > > On 26/07/2009, at 9:49, "Paul Trusten" <trus...@grandecom.net> wrote: > >> I fear it is going to be increasingly diffucult for us to explain >> to the American people why we should go metric. There might be >> some things we're going to have to explain first. >> >> See http://notalwaysright.com/the-building-blockheads-of-life/2255 > > This is the kind of person who's easy to change. Give them an actual > understanding of what's going on and they put aside their > misconceptions and get on with life happily. > > I think the only people that are difficult to convince are those who > hold the exact opposite opinion to us (and most people don't hold an > opinion at all). The problem is that people don't like change in > general and really don't like change they don't understand. Get them > to really understand metric and it's benefits and they'll help us > change. Until then, we're going to continue to just talk amongst > ourselves about how wonderful it would be. > > Paul > > -- > http://gometric.us