I think it's about time to take a break from all of the flow-charts and diagrams I've been showing you over the last 2 weeks, and relate a parable--one that has to do with why I'm writing about Diagnostic Synthesis in the first place...but before I do so, I've got to (are you ready?) do another black box warning to weed out the faint-hearted..."oh nooooooooooooooo" you say.  But take heart.  This isn't just "any" black box warning, this is actually a BLUE box warning...and if you read the parable below, you'll understand why I changed colors on you...

The  Allergist & the Preschool:  A Parable

Once upon a time there was an allergist.  He was busy in his practice, treating asthma.  Truth be told, he was basically an asthma doctor.  But he was bored.  After all, you can only give out so many inhalers and monitor so many breathing tests before it gets a bit monotonous.  He looked around for other opportunities.  Surely it wasn't with his patients--a lot of them had stomach issues, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, migraines, etc. but he really wasn't properly trained to DEAL with any of that.  Only wheezes, and sneezes, if you please.  So he sat in his office, and handed out the latest inhaler du jour while the time on the wall clock slowly crawled by.  So he was DELIGHTED one day when his wife (who ran a preschool) unexpectedly called--it turns out she had come down with a bad respiratory infection from one of the kids and she offered him the "job" of taking care of her preschoolers for one day.   He excitedly cancelled all of his patients for the next day, and went to the preschool. Boredom relieved! 

As he looked around at the wide-eyed faces of the young children, he asked them what they would like to do.  "Let's play with blocks!"  said one child.  "Yes!  I LOVE to play with blocks!" said another.  "Could you help us build something pretty?" asked another.  So the allergist got out all of the wood blocks from a box near the door.  They were all different colors.  Some were red, some were green, some were white, and some were....blue.  

Blue was his favorite color.  Always was.  Always will be.  I mean he really loved the color.  And the blue blocks?  He loved them too--every last sliver of them.   Was hypnotized by them.  Down to all 8 corners and all 6 faces of every blue block.  He knew he just wanted the kids to play with the blue blocks.  And only the blue blocks.  They were the prettiest.  They were the BEST.  And he know he would like to play with just the blue blocks too.  He was determined to learn everything about the blue blocks he could.  How they stacked on one another, how they fit together.  How he could use them to build interesting things.  And how the children would be so impressed with the  all-blue structures he'd create. 

There was only one small problem: 

There weren't enough blue blocks to go around. 

And there was one "not-so-small" problem:

The kids wanted to play with ALL the blocks; not just the blue ones.

As he handed out the blue blocks, he began hearing the protests.  "Why can't we play with ALL the blocks?" one child said.  "With more blocks we can build bigger and more beautiful things!" 

"Because I want you to play ONLY with the blue blocks" he said,  "What's the matter--don't you like blue blocks?" 

When children complained they also wanted to play with the red or the green or the orange blocks, he told them "that's not what we're playing with here".  (He almost allowed one child to use purple blocks--close enough to blue to be fairly attractive--but at the last moment said no.  He didn't want to set a precedent.)  And so they began playing.  The children were understandably disappointed when they couldn't build much.  After all, the blue blocks were merely ONE PART of the play set.  And there weren't that many blue blocks.    

The allergist was unperturbed.  "We will continue playing  with the blue blocks for now", he said.  "if you have any questions on how to build things with the blue blocks I'd be happy to help out." 

Meanwhile, while the children played, he spent his time minutely studying every last woodgrain pattern in each and every blue block they had, and explaining to each child the different grain patterns in each blue block.  The children weren't that interested in all the minutiae of the blue block composition--they were just frustrated they couldn't use all of the other brightly colored blocks.  The only one having some enjoyment in this was...the allergist.  But after a while even HE had to admit (to himself only) that he really couldn't build THAT much with just blue blocks.  In fact, he became...bored...just like at his office practice. 

...The next day the Allergist's wife returned to the preschool... She asked her children how they liked her husband, the "substitute teacher" allergist. 

"He was boring" said one child. 

"He didn't listen to us" said another child. 

"He didn't help us build anything pretty" said still another child, "It was really sad.  I think he could have really built pretty things if he was just CURIOUS about how all the blocks would fit together".    

"I don't understand all those big words you're using", said another child, "but I can tell you what I know-- he was just a blockhead". 

...And so he was.

Later, dude.