Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.
That is COP28 Dubai declaration. There is lot to unpack from that statement. As you can imagine, it took a lot of smart people from 151 countries, over several rounds of discussions, to draft that statement. Every word in that statement has meaning and implication. Every word counts. Crafting such statements is what lawyers typically do, though legal prose can be dense and opaque, like metal plates screwed on to a structure. But ability to give shape and definition to ideas and intentions is extremely valuable not just in the legal profession, but also many others. For example, pharmaceutical companies employ language specialists to develop questionnaires used in clinical trials, to help patients accurately report how they are feeling with respect to a health outcome. Such questionnaires are treated as instruments for measuring health, and are part of drug applications file with regulators. So, here again, every word matters. Every word counts. Of course, today we also have the emerging role of a prompt engineer, whose job is to craft statements that serve as inputs for generative AI.
But crafting statements is also part of what goes on in your head when you are really thinking about a problem or issue, and trying it frame it in a way that pumps intuition i.e make others see and think from new and interesting perspectives. Problems are poorly solved, quite often because they are poorly understood in the first place. A well-crafted statement can crystallise can improve understanding and invite collaboration. In his book Intuition Pumps and Other Thinking Tools, Daniel Dennett shows how every part of a statement has a function and we can see what that function is by changing a word or two. In the book he uses the tale of the Whimsical Jailer to pump intuition around the idea of free will.
Every night he waits until only a few prisoners are still awake and then he goes around unlocking some of the doors, leaving them open for hours on end.’
The prisoners are free to leave if they realise their cell door is open. Only a few prisoners are awake, but if they are not even aware of their door being unlocked, are they really free to leave?
The statement has seven parts:
Every night
he waits until
only a few prisoners
are still awake
and then he goes around unlocking
some of the doors,
leaving them open for hours on end.
We can tweak the parts and give them different values. You will see that changing even a single part changes the meaning and implication of the whole statement, in one direction or the other.
[Every][Every other][Some random][Every moonless] night
he [waits until]
[only a few][none of the][some of the] prisoners
are [still awake][fast asleep]
and then he goes around unlocking
[some of ][one of][all] the doors
leaving them open for [hours on end][one hour][several minutes].
Below are three versions, for example:
Version 1:
Every other night he waits until only a few prisoners are still awake and then he goes around unlocking some of the doors, leaving them open for hours on end.
Version 2:
Every night he waits until some of the prisoners are still awake and then he goes around unlocking all of the doors, leaving them open for hours on end.
Version 2:
Every other night he waits all of the prisoners are fast asleep and then he goes around unlocking some of the doors, leaving them open for one hour.
You can see how each version strengthens or weakens the argument being made. The possibility of the a prisoner leaving, expands or contracts. We can do the same with the COP28 declaration.
[Transitioning][Switching][Weaning][Breaking] away
from fossil fuels
in [energy][manufacturing][agricultural][all] systems
in a [just][judicious][balanced][uncompromising],
[orderly][expedient][urgent]
and [equitable][fair][balanced] manner
A lot of thinking goes into crafting a statement, with several 'hand tools of the mind', as Dennett calls them, giving shape and definitions. Statements have to be clear, concise, and complete. The writing and editing proceed with a concept in mind and a tacit feeling of which words to include or exclude. Every word counts, adding or subtracting from the totality of meaning and intent. The je ne sais quoi quality of a statement comes from thinking like a lawyer, writing like a poet.
Carefully constructed statements are the structural and functional units of software programs. They are also the building blocks of more formal constructions, such as policies, rules, regulations, contracts, and agreements. Let's take another example, from a contract for the maintenance and repair of military vehicles:
Carrying extra stock is a calculated risk, to avoid running out of parts or materials when unplanned consumption casually coincides with disruptions in global supply chains.
Using "if" instead of “when” changes the outlook. The word "coincides" acknowledges unforeseen events such as a container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal or the Ukraine war. The extra stock is a risk because carrying too much of it for too long will turn out to be expensive. Parts" and “materials” remind which stock we're referring to; the statement carries its context. And parts "or" materials, because running out of either type of stock could compromise a mission. Some statements are more important than others. The criticality of a statement often influences the number of revisions that may be necessary before the words have the desired effect. Some statements, like the COP28 declaration on fossil fuels, capture the essence of entire missions, programmes, enterprises, and organisations. Such statements change the narrative around important issues.
One of the challenges of making cities more liveable and sustainable is around the processing of waste. According to the European Environment Agency, 4.8 tonnes of total waste were generated per EU citizen in 2020, down from 5.0 tonnes/capita in 2010. But that 2020 number is misleading because actually there has been an increase in the waste generated by households over the period 2010-2020, co-related with the growth in GDP. The decrease in 2019-2020 is due to the decrease in economic activity during the pandemic. Therefore, the Agency goes on to say the EU is yet to reach a point of constantly decreasing waste generation in a growing economy, and that it is unlikely the per capita total waste generation will significantly decrease by 2030.
We can plead with everyone to produce less waste but that alone may not be enough. Imposing harsh penalties and fines often draws a backlash that some political parties are more than happy to exploit. Many may care about the eventual impact of their daily consumptions. Many others may simply not care. But we know that true and lasting change comes from changing the narrative and altering perceptions. Nobody is watching how many bags of good riddance a household empties into the neighbourhood bin. But people are perhaps more appreciative of what they are receiving than what they are ‘getting rid of’. Is it possible that we create around the concept of waste the perception of an economic ‘good’? What is a municipality passively supplying when it is actively removing waste? When crews with garbage trucks empty street bins, what is something good each household has more of? Empty space.
Every Tuesday before a neighbourhood wakes up from sleep, garbage trucks go around street by street emptying bins, leaving them full again.
Unless there is metering of consumption as with water, electricity, and gas, weekly supplies of empty space as a public good may still suffer from the tragedy of commons. But at least it won’t suffer from ‘out of sight, out of mind’. And, by changing the narrative we can talk about just how many cubic feet of empty space each household needs. We know mineral water comes from Alpine springs. Where does pure empty space come from and how much of it out there? Is the emptiness cultivated, manufactured, or dug out of the ground? What is the true cost of producing a few million cubic feet of it? What is the environmental impact?
That’s just an example. The point here is that statements can not only be used to change narratives, but they can also be narratives themselves, like the ‘user stories’ designers use to guide product development. They could spearhead marketing campaigns to gain the support of communities and populations. They can be worldwide declarations that have the support of countries and corporations.
Crafting a good statement is a skill that gets better over time with practice. Not everybody is skilful enough because they simply haven’t had the practice. Of course, anybody can prompt an artificially intelligent system such as ChatGPT to generate decent enough text. Prompt engineering is now a thing, a job even. But for really good text — so good that others will pay a premium for its production — we will continue to rely on people who know how to think like a lawyer, write like a poet. With AI-powered platforms, their ability to simultaneously construct and deconstruct statements will be more valuable than ever before. As would be their leaps of imagination.
On every flight, before passengers board the aircraft, airline staff go down the aisle row by row, emptying seat pockets and leaving them full again.
