The art of displaying

Revealing invisible attributes requires skills, knowledge, and ultimately art. One needs to be an agile observer and articulator in findings but keep the fine line. This is so in science and also in social interactions.

There was a famous oil drop experiment that was used to measure the electron value, i.e., the e charge value. Back in the early 20th century, scientists didn't have advanced tools to measure electron charge directly. So they had to find indirect ways to gauge it. One way was spray mist of water between two horizontal metal plates with opposite polarity, negative and positive charge. The distance of the two plates was known. The mist falling trajectory would be subject to the charge. Observers would calculate the electron charge from the droplet behavior, e.g., velocity and mass. This was a sound design. However, that was an unexpected problem: water evaporated quickly. Thus it was difficult to isolate evaporation from electric charge affection. A small tweak was proposed: use oil instead of water. Oil won't evaporate after emitting. Then oil drop trajectory would be viewed from telescope. The idea is the same of water but more practical.

Social interaction often isn't as easy. People interaction also sometimes is governed by unspoken rules that need to think carefully. For example, when bosses asked subordinates to evaluate them. What and how to say is very critical, when come to shortages. In consequence, what is good would be a lurking trigger point: such as good relationship with other departments, good interaction with employees and customers, etc. Then, the hard part begins: find indisputable facts first such as work-life balance better (more team buildings), more quarterly meetings (only one in the past). The hardest one is fairness: more favorite on some and ignore the others. Expert advice often point out the key is align both side's goals in the very beginning: all of these is to help get to the top. Open the scene by declaring: if you want to be the big shot, you would need to do these.

This business is easy to say than do. There is more nuance than science. Like an aphorism says, science is to make everyone understand, business is how to make other misunderstand. This fine line isn't that obvious though.