idea as follows: “The principal job of an academic administration is to keep the

people who don’t matter from interfering with the work of the people that do.” I

include this quotation partly because I long suffered from backlash caused by my

version of this professor’s conversational manner. After much effort, I was able

to improve only slightly, so one of my reasons for supplying the quotation is my

hope that, at least in comparison, I will appear tactful.

 

Twenty-Four: Reason-Respecting Tendency

 

There is in man, particularly one in an advanced culture, a natural love of

accurate cognition and a joy in its exercise. This accounts for the widespread

popularity of crossword puzzles, other puzzles, and bridge and chess columns, as

well as all games requiring mental skill.

 

This tendency has an obvious implication. It makes man especially prone to learn

well when a would-be teacher gives correct reasons for what is taught, instead

of simply laying out the desired belief ex cathedra with no reasons given. Few

practices, therefore, are wiser than not only thinking through reasons before

giving orders but also communicating these reasons to the recipient of the

order.

 

No one knew this better than Carl Braun, who designed oil refineries with

spectacular skill and integrity. He had a very simple rule, one of many in his

large, Teutonic company: You had to tell Who was to do What, Where, When, and

Why. And if you wrote a communication leaving out your explanation of why the