This is vital because, as Lakhani's study of InnoCentive discovered, "the further the problem was from the solvers' expertise, the more likely they were to solve it."28
(Weinberger, David (2012-01-03). "Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room Itself" (p. 56). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.)
This is a topic that always interests me: difficulties from the system itself.
- We have roaming gangs of marauders? We set up a legal/law enforcement/military system but then that system oppresses us.
- We have bugs and germs hurting us?
- We set up a medical system of physicians, clinics and hospitals but then that system incubates, harbors and spreads disease.
- We and our children need to learn about the world? We set up schools and train teachers and send ourselves and our kids to schools but then the schools convince some attenders they are inferior or think badly. Some convinced they must shun learning new things.
- We want a place to deposit small amounts of money to accumulate savings? We set up banks but they lead society into financial troubles.
Systems aren't perfect and they cause troubles of their own. What's the answer? There probably isn't just one answer and there will probably not be a perfect system of knowledge, training, information system and transfer, health or anything else. It does seem to me that collecting examples of system failure and system impedance of function and progress, say, every year or two, can reveal the need for corrections, alterations or the creation of an anti-system that tries to proceed differently, or compete with any system we have.
Of course, trying such modifications can be dangerous or shocking or both. I have heard of Dutch, German and maybe other towns that have tried removing road signs and other controls on their roads, only to find a fall in accidents and mishaps. Evidently, others have heard of this subject too, since putting "roads with no signs" into Google resulted in over 63 MILLION (!) hits!
As an academician, I have seen repeatedly examples of fear, tradition and politics impede recognition of intelligence, bold and valuable innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. I come from a lower middle class liberal background and never learned to treasure conservative values very much but I can understand that they have value.
"Too Big to Know" is making it even easier for me to understand the value of quite wide diversity of opinion of all types. One of the jobs of education is to enable children to become adults who have opinions, know what those opinions are, express them effectively and also value diverse opinions.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
