What I am thinking,
What I want to say,
What I think I am saying,
What I say,
What you want to hear,
What you think you are hearing,
What you hear,
What you want to understand,
What you think you understand,
What you understand,
Because there are ten possibilities between what I think and what you understand, there is great difficulty in our communication.
But even so, we must try.
A wise man points at the moon, but the fool looks at the finger. (Chinese proverb)
The wise man explains that his finger is not important and what should be looked at is the moon, but the fool carefully listens to him and thinks that he is a very good speaker. (a modern adaptation of the proverb)
The wise man pleads the fool to look at the damn moon, but the fool is only afraid and does not look up. (a very modern adaptation of the proverb)
The wise man finally gives up talking about the moon and instead starts talking about his finger, which he thinks the fool will be more interested in. The fool then says to himself, that the wise man is someone who is able to explain his own stories to others in an easily understandable manner, and that he can talk about any subject – even a random thing such as a finger. (an even more modern adaptation of the proverb)
When the wise man dies, the fool asks himself: “So really, what was it the wise man tried to explain to us lifting his finger so high?” (the ultimate adaptation of the proverb)
(from Paradise by Bernard Werber)
