There's a Chinese proverb titled “Three men make a tiger”, which tells us that we tend to accept anything as the truth if enough people repeat the message.

Here's an example explaining this in the context of the proverb:

Say, you come across a person near your home saying there's a tiger roaming in the neighbourhood. You might think of the person as a lunatic, dismiss them, and move on.

But when another person comes forward and says the same thing, you start doubting whether what these folks are saying is actually true, and you might be in danger.

By the time you hear a third person repeating the message, you're already convinced and have locked yourself in your house.

This is such a fascinating proverb because it explains how misinformation or biased messages spread and are accepted by people at face value.

An ongoing example of this is headlines along the lines of “AI will take all our jobs and put people out of work.”

This notion has almost become universally accepted because it has been repeated many times over the years, both by the average person and people with heavy credentials.

While I understand that AI tools, especially generative AI, might reshape some of the tasks previously done by humans, I'm yet to be convinced that generative AI can reliably do our jobs without human intervention.

Moreover, every time I come across this message, it's usually from the CEO of an AI company or someone who has heavily invested in generative AI and stands to gain from the ongoing AI boom.

Anyway, back to the topic without digressing too far into the example, this proverb can become a tool in our arsenal that urges us to question every message over the Internet when we feel even a tiny bit sceptical.

Remember: just because a few people around you are telling you the same thing doesn't always mean it's true. Do your due diligence before acting on the message.

Now, before you move on to the rest of this newsletter issue, here are a few words from: