Crisis Management

It’s commonly asserted that the Chinese word for “crisis” means “danger + opportunity.” This claim is usefully debunked here.

The debunker oddly seems to think, however, that the soundness of the advice to seek beneficial opportunities in times of crisis stands or falls with the accuracy of the translation. It doesn’t, of course; the advice could be good even if the translation is wrong, or bad even if the translation were correct. (I would add, boringly, that whether the advice is good or bad depends on what sort of crisis it is.)

2 Responses to Crisis Management

  1. Jared August 18, 2012 at 2:23 pm #

    I almost get the sense, judging by the tone of the article, that the author’s motivation for writing it was primarily to the attack the advice and the advice givers rather than to correct a language misconception.

  2. Lori August 21, 2012 at 6:00 pm #

    Always nice to see the discrediting of part of the folk wisdom of prescriptive entreprenoorialism.

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