anything but continue in the same direction

[keannu]

1. Does this "anything but continue in the same direction" mean "the change will go on" or not? "Anything but" means "never" and "same direction" is confusing.
2.You don't have to answer this question if this is too big, but I'd like to know some actual examples of each approach "simple place" and "highly complicated place". Maybe this depends on the attitude of people seeing the world. If A and B both live in New York, and A is more laid back, he would take things so simply, while B with complicated attitude would take things in complicated ways.

is31
ex)While Westerners believe that things don't change much, Asians believe that things are constantly changing. These differing assumptions about change can be derived from different understandings about the complexity of the world, which in turn are a consequence of attending to a small part of the environment versus a lot of it. If the world appears a simple place because we're not paying attention to much of it, then not much change is to be expected. If change is occurring, then there is no reason to assume that it will do anything but continue in the same direction. But if the world seems to be a highly complicated place because we're noticing so much, then stability will be the exception and change will be the rule. The greater the number of factors operating, the greater the likelihood that some variable will alter the rate of change or even reverse its direction.

 

[bhaisahab]

1. Does this "anything but continue in the same direction" mean "the change will go on" or not? "Anything but" means "never" and "same direction" is confusing.
2.You don't have to answer this question if this is too big, but I'd like to know some actual examples of each approach "simple place" and "highly complicated place". Maybe this depends on the attitude of people seeing the world. If A and B both live in New York, and A is more laid back, he would take things so simply, while B with complicated attitude would take things in complicated ways.

is31
ex)While Westerners believe that things don't change much, Asians believe that things are constantly changing. These differing assumptions about change can be derived from different understandings about the complexity of the world, which in turn are a consequence of attending to a small part of the environment versus a lot of it. If the world appears a simple place because we're not paying attention to much of it, then not much change is to be expected. If change is occurring, then there is no reason to assume that it will do anything but continue in the same direction. But if the world seems to be a highly complicated place because we're noticing so much, then stability will be the exception and change will be the rule. The greater the number of factors operating, the greater the likelihood that some variable will alter the rate of change or even reverse its direction.

"there is no reason to assume that it will do anything but continue in the same direction." This means "there is no reason to assume that it will do anything other than continue in the same direction".

 

[keannu]

A simple place seems to have only stable things, so "change" going in the same direction(change) seems to go against it, so what did the writer try to say?

 

[Tdol]

If you're not aware of many factors, then when change is noticed, people expect the change to continue in the same way and at the same rate. If you're aware of many factors, then you're aware that change does not have to be at a regular rate and the direction of the change can reverse.

No offence, but this passage strikes me as crass. ;-)

 

[keannu]

I'm so confused. Does it mean that a change will go on or stop? It seems to say "the change will never go in the same direction and there is no reason to think so, so the change won't happen continuously." I wish I or someone else could take an example.

ex)If change is occurring, then there is no reason to assume that it will do anything but continue in the same direction.

 

[Tdol]

What this text is saying is that Westerners think change will continue (if they see it) in the same way because they have a simplistic uninformed view of the world. Asians, who have a more sophisticated broader understanding of things, realise that change can reverse, slow down, speed up, etc.

BTW who wrote this nonsense?

 

[keannu]

It's just one of the writings of a workbook for the university entrance exam in Korea, and I have no idea where they extracted it, but probably from internet websites or any book. I think Asians think more about stability as buddists or taoism do, but the writer probably adopted the buddhist idea of "Nothing is everlasting in the world".