3 Men Create A Tiger ~ 三人成虎

结论是个厌倦思考的地方。
A conclusion is a place where you got tired of thinking. ~ Arther Bloch

The translated Chinese idiom of "3 Men Create A Tiger"

can be found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_men_make_a_tiger

How often are we guilty of stereotyping and unfairly judging people and things, only to find out later that it is not what we had initially perceived? Sometimes, we formed our opinions based on our life's experiences or from what we like to believe, but unfortunately, most inherited our views from others' opinions where information is often warped intentionally. We therefore constrain ourselves to bias views, missing out the full picture after we have conveniently arrived at our conclusions without further thinking. We become defensive and start to denounce other contradictory beliefs, in the course of which, relations are strained and we said things that we shouldn't have. Respect and courtesy are the least in our minds in the midst of proving our points.

With the exception of individuals who had intentionally chosen to canvass for their own agenda at all costs, even for the few of us who eventually found out the truth usually became prisoners of our own words. We are victims of "escalation of commitments" because we had preached so strongly in our initial beliefs, we continue to persist that we were never mistaken - all in the name of pride. We found ourselves becoming contradictory, hypocritical and jealous, cooking out excuses to justify our failures and blaming everyone and everything except ourselves. We do many bizarre stuffs just to uphold our pride, spreading rumours, mucking up half-truths and obscured facts to support our precarious ideologies.

These are the real-life social problems from working relations, friends, family and even the Goldfish hobby. Managing differences in the human society plays an important role in social and world peace. Till the day that the human race could finally embrace differences with an open mind and learn about respect and humility, there will never be, as it had never been a day of peace in our little world. While what I have said would not change the world, why not take life with a positive light? Isn't life boring without the things that we love to hate? Sometimes, they do spur us to keep improving ourselves and provide a good laugh now and then :)

In the game of Goldfish breeding, it is important for the breeder not to fall into the trap of "escalation of commitments". Although good brood stock should create good babies, we cannot always expect this to be true. A lot of factors are dependent on the breeder's aesthetic values and culling skills. If a subline does not yield results after a few iterations. It will be better to assess the problem objectively, admit our mistakes and move on.

I will be away for a highly anticipated goldfish expedition in Northern China with some of my avid hobbyist friends. My biggest worry now is the 4 batches of baby Dragon Eye Pearlscales spawned in August and September. I hope to cull away more fries to provide more space for the better ones. Focusing on the structure and the features, if I am lucky, I may be able to achieve some breakthrough this year.

Video:
三人成虎
~ the testimony of three men create a tiger in the market — repeated false reports will lead one astray. Translation : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_men_make_a_tiger

Pictures:
1) The most sexy blueberry eyes still come from the all-white sub-line.

2) Dragon Eye Pearlscales spawned on 26 September.

3) Dragon Eye Pearlscales spawned on 31st August.