This would be a lot stronger if it acknowledged how few lies have the convenient fatal flaw of a chocolate allergy. Many do, and it’s a good overall process, but it’s nowhere near as robust as implied.
Note that I disagree that it’s not applicable when you don’t already suspect deception—it’s useful to look for details and inconsistency when dealing with any fallible source of information—doesn’t matter whether it’s an intentional lie, or a confused reporter, or an inapplicable model, truth the only thing that’s consistent with itself and with observations.
The example was intended to be unrealistically convenient, since the goal there was just an illustrative example. Had I used an actual lie narrative from one of my clients (for example) it would’ve gotten very convoluted and wordy, and more likely to confuse the reader.
I acknowledge there are limitations when you’re dealing with unknowable lies. Beyond that, it was really hard to figure out how rare “lies with convenient flaws” really are. I don’t know what denominator I’d use (how many lies are in the universe? which ones count?) or how I’d calculate the numerator.
I think a realistic example would be useful! I suspect a lot of the nuance (nuance that might feel obvious to you) is in how to apply this over a long conversation with lots of data points, amendments on both sides, etc.
This would be a lot stronger if it acknowledged how few lies have the convenient fatal flaw of a chocolate allergy. Many do, and it’s a good overall process, but it’s nowhere near as robust as implied.
Note that I disagree that it’s not applicable when you don’t already suspect deception—it’s useful to look for details and inconsistency when dealing with any fallible source of information—doesn’t matter whether it’s an intentional lie, or a confused reporter, or an inapplicable model, truth the only thing that’s consistent with itself and with observations.
The example was intended to be unrealistically convenient, since the goal there was just an illustrative example. Had I used an actual lie narrative from one of my clients (for example) it would’ve gotten very convoluted and wordy, and more likely to confuse the reader.
I acknowledge there are limitations when you’re dealing with unknowable lies. Beyond that, it was really hard to figure out how rare “lies with convenient flaws” really are. I don’t know what denominator I’d use (how many lies are in the universe? which ones count?) or how I’d calculate the numerator.
I think a realistic example would be useful! I suspect a lot of the nuance (nuance that might feel obvious to you) is in how to apply this over a long conversation with lots of data points, amendments on both sides, etc.