I began tonight to write what I intended to be a rather serious and considered piece about the advisability of judging the achievements of the past by the standards of the present. It soon became apparent that this is a complex and subtle question that really required me to give it far more thought before I formed and expressed an opinion. If I am going to take part in that debate I need to consider the strategic folly of launching into the expression of an opinion until I am sure that I do actually have an opinion.
My late brother Mike declared the following to be the Allcock family prayer. “Oh Lord, please help me to keep my big mouth shut until I know what I am talking about.” He actually had this embroidered on the front of his fleece jacket. Following his advice there was an occasion on which I had to chair a session of a sociological congress in Warsaw. Faced with a range of opinionated and rather verbose colleagues from Eastern Europe, who were inordinately fond of the sound of their own voices, I suggested from the chair that we made Mike’s prayer a rule of the meeting. It brought the house down, but was effective. You see, I got the strategy right, of securing acceptance of a general rule before the session, instead of attempting to discipline the participants one at a time.
I won again at Scrabble tonight. The results are typically close, and often a game will go down to the last move or two. Reflecting on our different approaches to play tonight I suggested that what often gives me an edge over my wife is a sense of strategy. She had the good grace to agree. Mind you, this has not been the first occasion in our relationship in which an awareness of the importance of strategy has come to my aid.