I'll explain the title. One of my favorite films is 1970, "Kelly's Heroes", starring Clint Eastwood. I've seen it a dozen times or more. (I've heard this is the film that suggested to Norman Lear to cast Carroll O'Connor as "Archie Bunker".) In WWII, an American squadron goes behind German lines to steal gold bars from a bank. After many difficulties getting there, they find the bank guarded by a tiger tank. One of my favorite grouches, Don Rickles, suggests they make a "deal" with the tiger tank driver. When Eastwood aks, "What kind of deal?", Rickles growls, "A deal deal." They share the gold with the driver and make a getaway.

Here's the deal deal I propose:

• In STANDARD LOGIC, TRUTH is tautological. A tautology is of the form "A is A." or "If it is raining, then it is raining."

• STANDARD LOGIC serves at least FOUR INVALUABLE PURPOSES (TWO SHOWN NOW, TWO LATER):
  1. Determines when two ASSERTIONS can be EQUIVALENT in TRUTH-VALUE.
  2. Provides a "nonleaky vessel": If you put TRUTH into it, it won't "leak out".

• But STANDARD LOGIC cannot find TRUTH for us, or ever show us how to seek it.

• Hence, STANDARD LOGIC is ACTUALLY ABOUT LANGUAGE -- NOT REALITY!

• A quasi-logical formalism must be CAPABLE OF FALSIFICATION to CONNECT WITH REALITY. (Years after realizing this in a Logic Class at Columbia University, I found a "second opinion" in agreement -- that of the eminent Austrian-American philosopher, Karl Popper.)

• Yet this vulnerability should be MINIMAL.

• Such a form has long been know in STANDARD LOGIC, but has been PEJORATIVELY LABELED "FALLACY OF ASSERTING THE CONSEQUENT" (FAC). FAC IS ALWAYS OPEN TO FALSIFICATION BY REAL EVENTS, BUT, WITH CONTINUED SUCCESS, FAC "APPROACHES TAUTOLOGICAL TRUTH" TO A SMIDGIN OF DIFFERENCE.

• THE DEAL:
  1. I PROVIDE A SIMPLE FRACTIONAL FORMULA (INVOLVING ONLY ADDING & SUBTRACTING).
  2. YOU APPLY IT TO YOUR HYPOTHESES (GUESSES) ABOUT BUSINESS (OR WHATEVER), WITH PREDICTIONS (WHICH CAN BE CHECKED).
  3. THE FORMULA PROVIDES A FRACTIONAL MEASURE, (ASSERBILITYASSERBILITY) -- LIKE THE FRACTIONAL MEASURES OF PROBABILITY. Hence, ASSERBILITY DOES FOR STATEMENTS WHAT PROBABILITY DOES FOR EVENTS.
  4. I PROVE THAT "WILDCATTING" CAN PAY OFF BIG.

DO WE HAVE A DEAL? I'M PROVIDING THE TACTICS. YOU PROVIDE THE STRATEGY -- the business problems, managerial problems, the R & D problems, etsettery.