Moral Stories - THE TRIPLE FILTER TEST

THE TRIPLE FILTER TEST

Socrates was Greek philosopher known for his great knowledge and wisdom. One day an acquaintance of his met the wise man and said, “ I just heard something about your friend. Do you want to know about it?”

To which Socrate replied calmly , “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be good idea to  test importance of what you’re going to say. Let it pass through the triple filter test. The first filter of your information is truth. Are you absolutely sure that whatever you are about to tell me about my firned is true?”

“Well, no,” the man said, “I just heard about it from somewhere”

“All right, so you are unsure about the truthfulness of your statement you are about to make. Now, let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me a good thing?”  said Socrates.

“Umm, No” answered the man softly.

“So, you want to tell me something bad about my friend which you’re not certain it’s true. You failed the first two test but you may still pass the test if you pass the final filter, the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.” replied the man shamefully.

“Well, if what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good or even useful, why waste your time to tell it to me at all. ” concluded Socrates.

Although there is nothing wrong with talking about other people, it is what we talk about them that really matters. It is so easy to fall into a pattern of unconscious criticism, doubt and misunderstanding while involving oneself in a conversation about a third person. This short story of the great Greek philosopher Socrates could help us in making a better judgment about the information that we consume every day. The triple filter test can act as a very useful tool for blocking all the information that is not important to our lives.

"Speak only when you feel your words are better than your scilence."

Moral Stories - Cockroache and Waiter

A beautiful speech by Sundar Pichai - an IIT-MIT Alumnus:

The cockroach theory for self development
At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and
sat on a lady.
She started screaming out of fear.

With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started
jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the
cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got
panicky.

The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it
landed on another lady in the group.

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue
the drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.

In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the
behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.

When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and
threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of
my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was
the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?

If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle
the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the
ladies.

I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or
my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the
disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my
inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that
disturbs me.

More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that
creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learnt from the story:

I understood, I should not react in life.

I should always respond.
The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded.

Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always
well thought of.

- Sundar Pichai