Interviewer Reflections - Do Facts Matter? #1

Read an interesting story today.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554 – 1618) was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, an English landed gentleman. While imprisoned in the London Tower, Raleigh wrote his incomplete The Historie of the World. He aspired to write a book that is absolutely objective and is true to facts, with no bias or opinion, and this book should be revered and everlasting.

Then something happened and destroyed his belief and resulted in him giving up on writing the book. Two jailors had a quarrel one day. Sir Raleigh and another prisoner witnessed the entire thing. Then Sir Raleigh discussed this incident with his prisoner buddy - they did a recap of what happened. The recap killed his belief - that his prisoner buddy's narrative of what just happened was entirely different from his own narrative. The two of them told two different stories on how the quarrel started, what was argued, results of the quarrel and whose fault was it.

This made Raleigh realise - even for something that just happend and two persons who witnessed the entire process together, the output narrative can be So different. So history is based on narrative or story telling, and can we rely on any of the history books any more? Even if he completed the book, this book will just be his version of the stories that happened. 

From this story, can we conclude that truth or facts disappear after they happen, and what remain is the narratives or records. All narratives and records, are biased and opinionated?

If we apply this conclusion to interviewing, how can we effectively interview if we are prepared that we won't be able to get the truth or facts? If we further apply this thinking, when your team members report a 'fact' to you, how can we, as leaders, not be influenced by the facts which is, in fact, loaded with opnions and personal biases, but rather stay sober and make right judgment about people? 

Do facts matter? In interviews or daily work?