MikeB,

I thought you meant abstract as in (dictionary.com, number 3.)Difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract philosophical problems. I did not think the article was particulary difficult to understand. I said in my first post it was a skeptic's view - not a believer's. I am sure the author spent time investigating his stuff, he has over 400 entries and the ones I read seem thought-out. He is not just a hack poster like me

Talking about abstract (above version), the cofounder of NLP has quotes such as this:

<<<One of the models that I built was called strategy elicitation which is something that people confuse with modeling to no end. They go out and elicit a strategy and they think they are modeling but they don't ask the question, "Where did the strategy elicitation model come from?" There are constraints inside this model since it was built by reducing things down. The strategy elicitation model is always looking for the most finite way of accomplishing a result. This model is based on sequential elicitation and simultaneous installation.">>>

To me this is truly abstract. But I am not 100% familiar with the lingo - could you translate? And while you are at it answer flower333 original question "What is NLP"?


How can I very talk about concepts such as NLP only using sensory based language? I could give sensory based examples of what I am talking perhaps, but that would get tedious if one had to do that everytime when having an intellectual dicussion.

One question though - How is NLP a science? Let me define science pretty much (being perhaps over simplistic):
(Note the entire description is important)
It is one human branch of knowledge. It proposes theories on how the world (or an aspect of it) works. A scientific theory is a proposed description of things that happen in the real world works. The theory will stand if it describes and predicts events that can be observed and measured. If it fails this test if will be rejected. The unique feature of science is that over time it is self-correcting. Of importance in testing theories are measurements - this is the center of reality testing.

To date I see many pseudo sciences that have their theories. They always seem to be measure in anecdotes, testimonials only though with few tests. Their assumptions are the Law of the Land. Also there is almost never any scientific testing/studies on their validity.

I always wonder why so many programmers feel as if they were scientists (from your assertion that you are a Computer Programmer and feel NLP is logical science as well from the interactions I have with many others). For the most part, programmers in general have as their main skill applying the stuff they learn; much like engineering. Not furthering the sciences that they have studied. For example I am sure most programmers studied math - yet never did a significantly advanced mathematical proof. They are given ready made tools (in forms of theories and formulas) without ever learning how they were made. I am not saying this is a bad thing, but we CS majors and graduates are mostly not scientists because that is not our job!

On a side note MikeB, I am a part time computer programmer/college student myself. Which field in computer programming are you in? Which languages do you use, for example C,C++,CC++, Cilk, Perl, VB? Just would like to know.

[This message has been edited by chaosadelt (edited April 25, 2001).]