Thucydides
Not the First Account You Hear
Test even your own impressions
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 1, chapter 22
Several people give different accounts of one event, and you must decide on them. How did Thucydides check, and what did he ask when they did not agree?
What actually happened?
Thucydides was an Athenian general. In 424 BC he reached Amphipolis half a day too late, and Athens exiled him for twenty years. Writing the history, he set out his method. For events he refused to derive it from the first source that came to hand, and did not even trust his own impressions. It rests partly on what he saw and partly on what others saw for him, each report tried by severe tests. When eyewitnesses differed, he did not call anyone a liar. He blamed imperfect memory, or partiality for one side.
What reaches you first is only first
He did not use the first source, not because it was surely wrong, but because it was only the earliest. The version you hear first takes the room in your head, and later ones can only add to it. To check, you must keep that room empty while you hear the first.
The message that was forwarded first in the group says it most confidently, and is usually the earliest. Do not answer yet; wait for a second, independent source.
Even what you saw needs testing
He did not wholly trust even what he had seen himself, since being present is not seeing all of it. His method was part his own eyes and part other people's, set side by side. What you witnessed is one piece of evidence, not the conclusion.
You think the boss looked grim in the meeting and conclude layoffs are coming. Ask one colleague who was there what he saw.
When they differ, ask why they differ
When accounts did not match, his first thought was not 'who is lying' but memory or loyalty. Sorting a difference into those two sources shows which part to discount and which to keep.
Two colleagues describe the same clash in opposite ways. Ask which side each was on and how long ago it was; that does more than arguing over who is lying.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you hold several reports that do not match, and you have to decide on them.
Ask first: is this the first source, or a second independent one? Which side was the teller on, and how long ago? Has anyone else looked at the part I saw myself?
Where it goes wrong: turning 'check everything' into trusting nothing. He says the labour was heavy, and that a history without romance may please few. He checked so that he could act on it, not so that he would never have to.
Lines to keep
I did not even trust my own impressions
tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible
Same situation, other people are asking
I've stopped believing the promises.What I was promised falls through, over and over.The values are on the wall and nobody lives by them.He agreed this time. Will it hold next time?I don't believe what my boss says · all 6 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.