Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People
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Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People
Quote often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt. But first published quote seems to be from Stewart (1901) quoting Buckle building on ideas about desirable forms of conversation.
Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.
Suggestive of a hierarchy of intelligence/preference. Apparent idea being that discussing events and ideas required some increasing levels of cognitive application (information, intelligence and reflection).
Issues#
Stewart (1901) suggested that focusing on one level of the hierarchy alone would be problematic. At least
any of one’s friends who was incapable of a little intermingling of these condiments would soon be consigned to the home for dull dogs.
Focusing overly on a single layer could lead to other problems. Too much focus on ideas, too little on the lived experience of people.
Other questions/issues might be
- Are these the only/best layers in the hierarchy?
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Are there other criteria for measuring the quality of conversation?
e.g. If this criterion evaluates the what of conversation, might other criteria evaluate the how (form of conversation, medium etc) or why (purpose) of conversation?