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GCheng620 Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary

Does this sound illogical to you?

"we cannot not pay attention to any minor detail that may hold crucial influence at the end of the day."
What I'm wondering about is, why would the author call the detail "minor" if it has the potential to be crucial to the subject matter?
  

Top answer

" I would assume this means "influence the final outcome/result" at the end of the day. It's certainly possible that a minor detail can end up having a major impact but why would the writer/speaker not be willing to pay attention to such a detail if he/she were aware of this possibility? That seems to me to be the illogical aspect.

— Bwkcajca

  • " I would assume this means "influence the final outcome/result" at the end of the day.
  • It's certainly possible that a minor detail can end up having a major impact but why would the writer/speaker not be willing to pay attention to such a detail if he/she were aware of this possibility?
  • That seems to me to be the illogical aspect.
  • Would substituting the word "every" for "any" minor detail still reflect the intended meaning of the sentence?
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7 Answers
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To me the problem isn't with the logic of the sentence as much as it is with the expression "hold crucial influence." I would assume this means "influence the final outcome/result" at the end of the day.

It's certainly possible that a minor detail can end up having a major impact but why would the writer/speaker not be willing to pay attention to such a detail if he/she were aware of this
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bwkcajcaTo me the problem isn't with the logic of the sentence as much as it is with the expression "hold crucial influence." I would assume this means "influence the final outcome/result" at the end of the day.It's certainly possible that a minor detail can end up having a major impact but why would the writer/speaker not be willing to pay attention to such a detail if h
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The sentence is not well written.

I suggest
eg We cannot ignore any details in case they are crucial.

Clive
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bwkcajcaIt's certainly possible that a minor detail can end up having a major impact but why would the writer/speaker not be willing to pay attention to such a detail if he/she were aware of this possibility?
Maybe you misread it? Maybe you missed the double negative?

... we cannot not pay attention ...

That is, we must
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GCheng620why would the author call the detail "minor" if it has the potential to be crucial to the subject matter?
You may be missing the intent of the author.

He's saying that even the most minor detail may be crucial, so that's why we must pay attention to all details, even the minor ones. He doesn't know at the time of writing whether any particul
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I have not misunderstood the intent of the speaker, I just thought that a detail should not be called "minor" if it has the potential to influence the end result. I think the speaker should just drop the word "minor."
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GCheng620I think the speaker should just drop the word "minor."
But recall that we don't know which details may become crucial later. Given this time sequence, does "minor" make sense to you now?

CJ
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