The pears by the road

Wang Rong was seven years old, out playing with other children, when they saw a pear tree by the road, loaded with fruit.

The other children ran for it. Wang Rong stood still.

Somebody asked why. He said: the tree grows right at the roadside and there's fruit on it. There should be a reason. He looked again. The pears tasted terrible.

This is told as a story about a clever child. What's actually in it is a piece of judgement that most adults lose.

The tree was public, the fruit was abundant, and the road was busy. If the fruit were good, it wouldn't still be there. That's the whole inference. It's not cynicism. It's noticing the conditions that produced an opportunity.

Most people don't apply it because they want the pears.

The job that's been open for eight months and always hires at your level from outside. The offer that's very generous for something nobody else wanted. The opportunity that finds you at 11 p.m. with a deadline of tomorrow that nobody can explain.

None of those are always bad. All of them are worth one question before the van is loaded: if this were as good as it looks, why is it still here.

The corollary is more useful than the warning. If you want to know what a thing is really like, look at how many people have already tried it and stayed.

MOJOWAY's coach file includes what a person has already tried. The pattern of what they kept and abandoned usually tells you more than the presenting problem.