Literature in Review
By Richard Barbieri , Ph . D .
Think Again : The Power of Knowing What You Don ’ t Know
Adam Grant Viking ( 2021 )
Ten years ago I took an evening class at the renowned Program on Mediation at Harvard Law School . The most memorable part of that course was an exercise developed by one of the consulting groups that taught one of the classes . They asked a simple question of the 60 or more students that attended : “ Is corn a grass , a vegetable , a grain , or a cereal ?” They divided us into quadrants of the room , depending on our answers . Then they asked each group to choose a spokesperson to make the case for their view , and after each brief argument , they invited people to change their minds . Of the four groups , only one persuaded a single person to change . They then examined the reasons for 59 or more people ’ s commitment to their answers .
I was always pleased that I convinced that one person to move . That ’ s because I knew the answer : corn is a descendant of an ancient grass called teosinte , which was cultivated in South America before the European Encounter . Soon after , I softened my answer to “ It depends .” If you ’ re a botanist , corn belongs to the grass family . If you ’ re at a roadside farm stand , corn is a vegetable . If you ’ re an agribusiness , corn is a grain . If you ’ re Post or Kellogg , corn is a cereal . But I always felt that deep down , I was right .
Page 20 Fall 2021 CSEE Connections