Ask JW: The Unreliable Narrator

Hello everybody, JW here.

Most of us know the story about the Three Little Pigs. I was recently at a bookstore.  Yes, I was at a bookstore and was looking for books I could read with my granddaughters. I not only saw the book of the Three Little Pigs, you know, the first pig built his house with straw, the wolf huffed and puffed, and the house came down, and the second pig’s house was built with sticks. Same wolf, same result.

The third pig built his house with bricks, but this time, it stayed standing.

Not too far on the shelf, I found another book regarding the Three Little Pigs. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, told by Alexander T. Wolf, who tells a completely different story. According to him, he had a terrible cold, needed to borrow a cup of sugar for his grandmother’s birthday cake, and those famous “huffs and puffs” were actually sneezes.

He had written around the time the police arrived, everyone misunderstood the whole entire thing. He even gets his side of the story told in a book that he wrote himself.

Same events, different narrator, different stories.

But wait a minute, did anybody ever ask the wolf what happened before the Three Little Pigs were written? For decades, there was only one story, and we all believed it!

And that’s exactly my point.

So, who do you believe?

That brings us to something called the unreliable narrator. A storyteller whose account may be shaped by bias, incomplete information, or an interest in the outcome.

And that brings us to our industry.

Every product has a story, but who is telling it?

The salesman tells you why you should buy it. The distributor tells you why they carry it. The manufacturer tells you why they made it. But does the evidence support their story?

Marketing is a claim. It’s not proof. Specifications are only as reliable as the testing behind them.

Ask who tested it, how was it tested, what standard was used? Follow the evidence and the data, not the narrator. And the real question is who and what can you believe.

Every product has a story, but who is telling it? This is what I call the “UNRELIABLE NARRATOR”.

 

When someone says a turf is more durable, an adhesive creates stronger seams, or an infill performs better, ask, “Can I see the actual test report? What product was tested? Under what conditions? Does the report apply to the product and application being recommended?”

Two impressive numbers may tell a different story if the testing conditions are completely different.

Experience teaches you which questions to ask. Evidence helps you evaluate the answers.

Claim equals testing equals evidence & data equals the conclusion.

This is the process I want you to remember.

First, the claim.

What is somebody telling us? What are they promising? What exactly needs to be verified?

And second, the testing.

Who performed the testing? How was it done? What standard was used? And is that test appropriate for that claim?

Third, evidence and data.

What do the actual results demonstrate? Examine the measurements, laboratory reports, field observations, and photographs. Understand what the evidence supports, and where its limits are.

And fourth, the conclusion.

Only then do we decide what we can reasonably say because a conclusion shouldn’t be where we start. It’s where the evidence takes us.

Here at Synthetic Grass Warehouse, we apply that philosophy to the products we offer. We test every product, every turf, every infill, every shock pad, with testing appropriate to its intended use.

For us, striving to be the best in the industry means asking the hard questions, examining performance, and making evidence the foundation of our recommendations.

It means understanding how products perform individually and how they work together in a complete synthetic turf system.

That knowledge helps us match products to your project’s needs, from landscape and pet applications to sports surfaces and playgrounds.

Here at Synthetic Grass Warehouse, our goal is to earn your confidence through knowledge, testing, and documented performance.

And that same expectation applies to us. Ask us about the test. Ask what the results mean for your application.

Whether you’re listening to a salesman, a distributor, a manufacturer, or even an expert like me, ask what evidence supports the story.

Claim, testing, evidence, data, conclusion.

Listen to the story, examine the evidence, and let the results guide your decision.

Because the truth lies in the evidence and data. And this is why Synthetic Grass Warehouse has remained the industry’s leader for decades.

I’m JW. And remember, there is no substitute for experience.