Definition of the Gray Area

“It’s not black and white” is the best clue to someone’s lack of knowledge.

How far is it between the tip of your nose and the screen? Something between 40cm and 50cm (or is it by inch, foot, or arm)? I figure the screen is not behind you so it must be a positive number. It’s not a couple of meters away because you can reach it with your hands, but your hands can’t touch the floor when you stand, so it can’t be taller than you.

This can go on until you reach the point where you need a ruler to achieve higher accuracy. You know there is an exact answer but you don’t know what it is, so you give an estimate.

A simpler example is the result of 523 multiplied by 6. You can easily tell that it’s about 3,000 because of the 5 and the 6, but you’d need to go into more details to figure out the exact result — that you know must exist.

Disregarding the specific metric, to reach a conclusion you figure out which variables are in the equation, find some of them, and then fill in the missing ones with imaginary data — hence the range (aka an opinion).

Objective Best

So how do you know that an exact answer exists? Because you know these types of questions, you’re used to them. Imagine someone came from a place without rulers, that had never seen numbers. He might say “It’s something between the length of my arm and the length of my leg”, and he might even believe there is no exact distance — maybe because it can’t be measured, or maybe because it depends on the arm’s length of the one who measures. Does that sound familiar? If not, here’s one you can relate to:

How many right ways are there to spend tax money on a certain society at a certain time? You can spend it on education, on healthcare, on roads, or on helping the weak. You can’t really have one right answer for the right distribution, right? Each person thinks differently, so there are probably multiple correct choices. That’s the common mistake.

For every question there is one right solution, and in this case right means best. There is one best solution, which makes all other solutions not as good. Five people may have 5 different opinions, but if one of them read all the research, performed all the surveys, and found out all the missing variables — they will not set a range, there will be no gray area for them, they will have the exact and only answer — just like the result of the square of 2. For them it will be black and white — one option that they know to be best, and the rest that they know to be worst.

Subjective Best

The above philosophy seems to conflict with the common phrase “that’s the best solution for me”, but it does not. It simply means you are confused between different opinions and different questions. The best choice of occupation for example is different from person to person. So the best choice for you may be engineering, while the best choice for them may be gardening.

The best solution with your variables is always the best solution with your variables, you can’t go saying “my opinion is that I like bowling, but their opinion is that I like basketball”. There are no two equations for the same question in the sense that the answer will always be the same given the same variables, however there can be two different equations for two different questions.

Conclusion

Some questions, such as the tax distribution example, are obviously too complicated for us to solve: too many variables, some variables are known but can’t be valued with the available tools (such as a perfect survey), and some variables are unknown (such as hidden psychological repercussions).

But bear in mind that even if you don’t know how to lay down the equation in a conceivable way (and thus produce an opinion) — it doesn’t mean there isn’t one. If someone says he does have one, it might be because they know something you don’t (or that they are lying).