The sage, the monkey and the analyst

Once in a distant land, an old sage was asked to give a speech in a village. He came with his monkey. He tied his ape nearby while delivering his speech. The villagers found strange that the sage brought an animal along but they kept silence not to offense him. It was hot and very dry summer and fortuitously later that day it rained making everyone very happy. After the speech the sage left with his monkey.

So it became the tradition in the village to tie a monkey during a speech. They thought this had some connection with the rain by pleasing the gods.

Conditioning shapes us, sometimes it makes us rigid, even blind. The more rigid you are the more fragile you become.


To break the conditioning, to validate your truth and knowledge, you should ask yourself the questions Socrates frequently asked:

1. What do you know?
   
2. How do you know what you know?
   
3. Why should you care about it?

I think these questions should be part of the standard toolbox of every business analyst and more generally, of everyone.

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