It was several days ago. I argued with a long time friend, which seemed to go on for forever. It is about numbers. He was perturbed and frustrated with the near-total absence of applying numbers in the execution of duties and responsibilities with the positions he had been holding for ages.

It had been compounded by a company culture spearheaded by a CEO with the belief that no position within a work environment requires qualification exceeding the eighth grade with, in his term, no more than the main elements of math. This is addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, including the ability to draw a simple bar graph. It was a company where he had his most recent experience.

I am aware that my friend always expects from me statements in consonance with his habit of distorting the facts until they become bearable for his own views. If it were not for his recent purchase of a hand-me-down desktop computer, I would not have raised the issue at all. I usually argue the virtues of promoting numbers and their use as statistical tools wherever, as it is key to continual improvement of any endeavour. Of course, computers these days are making many mathematically abilities moot.

Nevertheless, I could not change his mind. Although he was wrong in his assertions, the more I tried to persuade him, the deeper he dug into his own views. He was a victim of a notorious psychological affliction – cognitive dissonance.

It was instantly after we left each other, and we said our goodbyes, that I was taken with thoughts to my undergraduate college days. We had a course on policy formulation with an instructor articulate in his use of the English language and subject matter knowledge. We had an exciting semester all the way to the exam. When the results came, it turned sour only for me. I scored a “D.” I was shocked and headed to his office to protest the abysmal grades.

Unusual to most instructors with grade complaints then, he welcomed me and listened to my grievance. As he sifted through the pile of answer papers, he asked if I was aware that the grade for the exam had been inflated. Then, he was equally shocked by my response that I cannot be responsible for the grade inflation alone, as he learned that he did not go through two pages from my answering papers when he went through my work previously.