Bridging Gaps
Cheng explores how acknowledging a grey area can reveal common ground between apparently opposed positions. Her examples connect gradual changes in skill with a discussion of where people draw boundaries in social policy.
THE IDEA
BRIDGING GAPS
If we aren’t careful about grey areas and logic we can end up being pushed into taking extreme positions, as the only way of remaining logical. Indeed, it’s possible to use incremental steps of logic to argue someone into a very extreme position without them realising what is going on. If we hold people to this black and white logic then we push all disagreements into further and further extreme opposites. I think, instead, we should give everyone ways to get out of these positions that are still counted as logical. Whether it’s fuzzy logic, probabilities, hazy lines, or lines simply placed somewhere unknown in a grey area, or simply being more comfortable with less certainty, these are all more nuanced ways of dealing with our very nuanced world. The grey area is a bridge between black and white. There are few things as simple as black and white in the real world. Really we’re all living somewhere on that grey bridge, and for some people it feels unsettling to take a position of nuanced uncertainty. If we all acknowledge that, and even build more bridges, I think we will achieve better understanding.
Grey areas can be exploited to mislead, but gradual changes can also help us make progress. The idea is that we can use small, unnoticeable increments to nudge ourselves gradually to somewhere that is quite far from where we started. If we tried to do it in one leap it would seem insurmountable. I use this psychological trick all the time to make progress. I use it when I’m learning a new and difficult piece of music at the piano. I start by only being able to play it extremely slowly, but I use a metronome and gradually increase the speed by a tiny and unnoticeable amount each time. I might start it at a rate of 40 beats per minute, at which speed the piece is easy, and then go up to 42. My fingers don’t notice any difference. Then I go up to 44, and my fingers still don’t notice any difference. It doesn’t take that long to double or even triple the speed at which I can play the piece. The principle of “a little bit more won’t make a difference” is harmful when it’s about eating cake, but beneficial when it’s about accomplishing a big task.
More seriously, this method can be used to find a bridge between apparently opposing ideas. Consider a disagreement about social services in terms of false positives and false negatives. One person believes in helping everyone who needs help, even if that means helping some extra people by mistake. Another person believes that everyone should take responsibility for themselves. This argument can be very divisive, but we could instead acknowledge that there’s a grey area. The person who believes in social services probably doesn’t believe in simply giving out large amounts of money to everyone who asks for it, without question. The person who believes that everyone should take responsibility for themselves might be able to acknowledge that some particularly “worthy” people need help, perhaps members of the military who have been injured during active service. If this is so, then we have established that the question is not whether or not we should help people, but to what extent we should, and under what circumstances. It is now a question of where we place people in the grey area and how we treat the grey area.
1 Photo credit: M N Cheng
When to use it
Planning gradual increases in practice difficulty while checking how well you can sustain each step.
Negotiating a complex business deal where both sides start from seemingly incompatible positions, by first finding a small point of agreement and building from there.
Resolving a team conflict where members appear to have opposing priorities; helping them map their positions onto a shared spectrum of values (e.g., speed vs. quality).
Personal growth, such as slowly reducing a bad habit by replacing it with a slightly better alternative, using small, sustainable increments.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Gradual Skill Acquisition with a Metronome
The author describes using a metronome to learn a difficult piano piece. Starting at a slow, easy tempo (40 bpm), the speed is increased in tiny, unnoticeable increments (2 bpm at a time). This allows the player to eventually reach speeds that would seem impossible if attempted in one leap, applying the 'a little bit more won't make a difference' principle positively for accomplishment.
Resolving the Social Services Debate
An argument about social services appears binary: help everyone regardless of false positives vs. strict individual responsibility. The text suggests finding a grey area bridge. The pro-services person likely has limits, and the anti-services person likely makes exceptions (e.g., helping injured veterans). This turns the stark 'either/or' conflict into a nuanced question of 'to what degree and under what circumstances', moving the discussion from a binary to a spectrum.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
In a current disagreement, what question do both sides care about? Could clarifying their limits and exceptions reveal common ground?
What is a large, daunting goal you have right now? What is the smallest, most comfortable first step you can take, and how can you design an incremental process (like the piano metronome) to bridge the gap towards it?
Think of a belief you hold strongly. Is it possible you are holding a 'black and white' position that ignores a perfectly valid grey area? What would acknowledging that grey area cost you, and what might it gain you?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Art of Logic How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn’t (Eugenia Cheng)