The Reverse Turing Test For Lawyers
So what is the Turing Test? I learned this from the book Fooled By Randomness. It is a test developed by the British mathematician, Alan Turing who said that a computer can be said to be intelligent if (on average) it can fool a human into mistaking it for another human. Notes Taleb, the converse should be true. A human can be said to be unintelligent if we can replicate his speech by a computer, which we know is unintelligent, and fool a human into believing it was written by a human.
Taleb used this test to demonstrate how one could analyze the text of speech by a CEO to ascertain whether what he is saying has value or whether “it is dressed up nonsense from someone who was lucky to be put there.” Taleb gives you a collection of phrases and asks that you select 5 randomly then connect them by adding the minimum to construct grammatically sound speech. You have no doubt heard them many times before. Some are: “creation of shareholder value”; “We look after our customer’s interests”; “the road ahead”; “we provide interactive solutions”; and so on.
So it occurred to me to see if one could create a similar list for lawyers. I looked at the websites of some prominent firms and here is what I came up with:
1.global practice
2. serve our client’s needs
3. be challenged
4. support pro bono
5. we provide creative solutions
6. we make a difference in our community
7. do work that matters
8. professional development
9. practical solutions
10. the necessity of diversity
As Taleb in instructs randomly select four of the phrases and add the necessary language to make a grammatically correct statement.
With respect to CEO Taleb suggests that if what you develop closely resembles a speech you heard from the boss of your company you should start “looking for a new job.” What should you do when you apply the test your lawyer?
