Who Do You Believe? And Why?

[Guest guest]

Group,

Aimee raised an important point for us all. I said something and

she disagreed. She said what she believed, why she believed it

and even took a shot at my credibility compared to that of her

trusted experts.

Who Do You Believe? And Why?

Bear with me for the outline of the details because they help

illustrate the issue and how you might answer the challange.

I said we should begin collecting " facts " because we should be

including what we know in the formation of our opinions. It's a

waste of time to keep debating the same issues when the facts

are settled. Someone else supported that by saying we've begun

going in circles lately.

Aimee promptly challanged me on a specific fact, citing the

source for her information. And it was quite a good source!

I said most 6 mil poly sheeting didn't have sufficiently low

permeance to be a barrier. Aimee countered that her source of

experts specified 4-6 mil poly, and those experts have been

around as long or longer than me.

Her source was the Healthy Home Institute Web site at:

http://www.healthyhouseinstitute.com/hhip_791-

Crawl_Space_Foundation

My source was identified at the time as my opinion. Assuming, I

guess, that I had enough credibility that the group would just trust

me.

Aimee had information that was different and she pointed it out to

me in front of the whole group. Yea! Aimee!!!

So, Who Do You Believe? And Why?

- Do you believe Aimee because of her source?

- Or, do you believe Aimee because her experts have been

around as long or longer than I have. Implying they probably

know more than I do.

- Or, do you believe Aimee because you are her friend?

- Or, do you believe Aimee because you are tired of seeing my

posts and glad to see somebody prove me wrong?

- Or, do you believe I'm right and Aimee is wrong because you

don't dare dispute what I say?

Who Do You Believe? And Why?

Others on this group have offered their opinion about

crawlspaces and barriers. Sometimes personal experience is

more credible than the " experts. " Especially when it comes to the

realness of WDB exposure, a remediator claiming he did a good

job even though you are still sick. Or a mold inspector taking

mold tests and declaring the house clear when you know it's not.

- Sometimes personal experience is true only for that person.

- Sometimes personal experience, while true, wrongly identifies

the cause and the cure.

- Sometimes personal experience is exactly right!

Who Do You Believe? And Why?

And why should we believe you?

There's more to this issue but let's start here. You're all smart

and very experienced with lots to offer. Proof of that is the HUGE

number of e-mails on this group lately. I'm just reorganizing how

we talk about it in a civilized, sharing, non-flame way for all to

learn more.

Use specific examples of recent conversations.

And thank you Aimee for challanging me! Your timing was

perfect.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC

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