- Herman Kahn, an influential strategist on how to "win" a nuclear war, used to offer a Yiddish folk tale, from Russia, as a cautionary tale against outsmarting one's self when reaching for hidden meanings. Paraphrasing the key passage from memory, a suspicious individual confronts a traveller, he mistrusts, and says something like:
- "You can't fool me! I know where you are really going.
- "You say you are going to Minsk.
- "But you want me to think you are going to Pinsk.
- "However, I am not fooled, because I already knew you were going to Minsk!
- Here on the wikipedia I have encountered a number of individuals who argue that our WP:RS should be interpreted in some other way than their flat, apparent, surface meanings. And every time I see someone make that argument, over what the WP:RS really means, I am reminded of Herman Khan's account of the folk tale.
- Struggling to parse a real meaning from an WP:RS generally lapses from WP:VER, WP:NOR and WP:NPOV. The surface meaning does not require interpretation, does not require other references for verification. Convoluted parsing of a real meaning, that differs from the surface meaning, generally should be accompanied by an WP:RS who makes that re-interpretation. Failure to supply additional references could well be seen by one's fellow contributors as original research, and a lapse from the neutral point of view.
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