Help with prompt

[confused007]

Hey guys, I'm having trouble with the following prompts. Any help is greatly appreciated.

The public is swayed more by new ideas than by good ones.

 

Some dishonesty is necessary to keep a friendship strong

 

My main problem is coming up with counter examples. Arr I really don't have much time left to practice though.

[aquadon]

Hi Confused,

 

I've included my thoughts similar to how I would pre-write the prompt (but with a bit more detail). Let me know if this helps:

 

The public is swayed more by new ideas than by good ones.

-- 1. new ideas - exciting, haven't been tried before, hopeful public can be swayed by the lack of negative consequences associated and ignore lack of positive consequences. Especially if something hasn't been working well! E.g. Using ethanol as a fuel source for cars.

-- 2. Good ideas - Proven successful, well researched, have benefit of experience, fully defined positive and negative consequences. Eg: Reducing our fuel consumption

-- 3. Depends level of support for the idea (influenced by politics, marketing, media) and how easy the idea will be for the public to adapt to. In this case, ethanol is pushed by the government and farms whereas decreasing consumption is not good for the economy (even though environmentally it is the better idea). Additionally, it is much easier to change the type of fuel you use or the car you drive (one time change) than to change your habits.

 

I'll come back to the second one in a bit, just using this as a physics study break!