Klarinet Archive - Posting 001136.txt from 2000/02

From: jim & joyce <lande@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] fear of appearing foolish
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 01:23:42 -0500

re asking questions without regard to looking foolish...

Many years ago, several of us economists had to help lawyers prepare to
cross examine Bell System witness on some very technical issues.
Everybody felt sorry for the two fellows who had to prepare Lew. Lew
was an older gentleman. Lew never seemed to have a grasp of what we
were after. Worse, his sentences were so long and convoluted that there
was no logical beginning or ending to fixing a single question. The big
day arrives and Lew begins by asking an interminable and obtuse
question. The witness asks him to restate it. Lew does, much the way
Jackson Pollack might repaint a canvas. Lew then stops speaking and
everyone turns to see what the witness will say. The witness is the
expert, after all, and presumably knows what is being asked. The
witness then proceeds to answer a question that he feared might be
asked. This happens repeatedly for all of Lew's witnesses. His cross
examination turned out the be the most fruitful that we got.

There is no such thing as a bad question. But one should be
especially careful answering the ones that sound like bad questions.

jim lande

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