The letter that made a theory

A man in Ying was writing a letter to a minister in Yan. It was night and he was dictating to someone who was writing by candlelight.

Mid-sentence he called out: the light is low, raise the candle.

He meant it for the scribe. He also said it aloud in the flow of the letter, so it got written down.

The minister in Yan read the letter, came to the phrase "raise the candle", and considered it deeply. He concluded that raising a candle meant promoting the wise, and he built a whole policy of appointing capable men out of that.

The state of Yan prospered. Han Feizi dryly notes that the policy was good, but that's not the point: the writing was noise and the reader made it sacred.

We do this constantly and rarely notice. You read a book, hit a sentence that was probably careless, and build a conviction around it. Or someone gives you advice at the wrong moment, in a hurry, and it becomes doctrine for a decade.

I'm not saying never take a hint. I'm saying test whether the phrase was meant for you.

Some of the sentences that changed my life were accidents. So were some that wasted years.

Before adopting an insight, ask what the person was actually doing when they said it.

MOJOWAY is where that check happens out loud. Taking an idea seriously is different from giving it authority.