First, let me disclose my position. I am very thankful that you wrote this article. It is about an important topic, it shows great insight and contains good examples. Also, I have already made up my mind about Geoff; I am still curious about the details, but in my opinion the big picture is quite obvious and quite bad. At some moment it just feels silly to be infinitely charitable towards someone who wastes no time deflecting and reframing to make himself a victim. That said...
I feel a bit “dirty” upvoting an article that is about the concept of frame control in general, but also obviously about Geoff. I would have happily upvoted each of these topics separately, but it feels wrong to use one button for both. (Because other people may feel differently about these two topics, and then it is not obvious what the votes mean.) I upvoted anyway, because from my perspective the benefits of the article dramatically exceed this objection, but the objection still makes sense. At least I will try to separate the topics in my comments.
Anna’s third point… it means that talking about “frame control” is itself an attempt to set a frame. (Similarly how e.g. the idea of a “meme” is itself a meme. Or how the word “word” is a word.) Some people do not have the concept of a “frame”, other people do, and you are trying to explain the concept to your audience and to make us actually use it. Making someone use a certain concept when looking at a certain situation… that is exactly what frame control is.
I guess the difference is in the degree of control. You have offered the frame… but if your audience decides to consider things from a different perspective, there is little you could do about it. In this sense, it is definitely not the same experience as when someone is pushing their frame on a helpless or unsuspecting victim. (A subset of your points 1-16 in the article.) But of course an uncharitable reader who aims to win the verbal fight would insist on the similarities, and indeed some similarities are there; and their frame would be that the mere “degree” of control does not make a substantial difference.
There are two very simple and popular reframing techniques: If you keep generalizing, everything will start looking similar to everything else… after you have abstracted away all the differences. On the other hand, if you overly focus on tiny specific details, then nothing is similar to nothing else. I guess the way to overcome them is to find the most general difference between the two things, and focus on that. -- So, applying this lesson on this very topic: The difference is that you are offering a frame, but your audience is free to either accept or reject it.
First, let me disclose my position. I am very thankful that you wrote this article. It is about an important topic, it shows great insight and contains good examples. Also, I have already made up my mind about Geoff; I am still curious about the details, but in my opinion the big picture is quite obvious and quite bad. At some moment it just feels silly to be infinitely charitable towards someone who wastes no time deflecting and reframing to make himself a victim. That said...
I feel a bit “dirty” upvoting an article that is about the concept of frame control in general, but also obviously about Geoff. I would have happily upvoted each of these topics separately, but it feels wrong to use one button for both. (Because other people may feel differently about these two topics, and then it is not obvious what the votes mean.) I upvoted anyway, because from my perspective the benefits of the article dramatically exceed this objection, but the objection still makes sense. At least I will try to separate the topics in my comments.
Anna’s third point… it means that talking about “frame control” is itself an attempt to set a frame. (Similarly how e.g. the idea of a “meme” is itself a meme. Or how the word “word” is a word.) Some people do not have the concept of a “frame”, other people do, and you are trying to explain the concept to your audience and to make us actually use it. Making someone use a certain concept when looking at a certain situation… that is exactly what frame control is.
I guess the difference is in the degree of control. You have offered the frame… but if your audience decides to consider things from a different perspective, there is little you could do about it. In this sense, it is definitely not the same experience as when someone is pushing their frame on a helpless or unsuspecting victim. (A subset of your points 1-16 in the article.) But of course an uncharitable reader who aims to win the verbal fight would insist on the similarities, and indeed some similarities are there; and their frame would be that the mere “degree” of control does not make a substantial difference.
There are two very simple and popular reframing techniques: If you keep generalizing, everything will start looking similar to everything else… after you have abstracted away all the differences. On the other hand, if you overly focus on tiny specific details, then nothing is similar to nothing else. I guess the way to overcome them is to find the most general difference between the two things, and focus on that. -- So, applying this lesson on this very topic: The difference is that you are offering a frame, but your audience is free to either accept or reject it.