Walking is to Driving as Idea Generation is to Idea Testing
Posted Nov 15 2008 4:03am
Mary Soderstrom, a Montreal writer, has written a recently-published book called The Walkable City. From a blurb:
The idea that a city might not be walkable would never occur to anyone who lived before 1800. Over the past 200 years there have been dramatic changes to our cities.
Over the same period there were also dramatic changes in the practice of science. Maybe the biggest change was the introduction of significance tests and associated logic. Just as cars took over cities, so did significance tests take over statistics textbooks. Cities built for cars made it hard to walk; statistics textbooks full of significance tests made it hard to teach how to generate ideas.
How to generate plausible new ideas — ideas worth testing — is pretty much a mystery to most scientists, as far as I can tell. The idea generation:idea testing :: walking:driving analogy provides a little guidance, and at least makes it clear that something is missing from today’s scientific education. Walking is slower than driving; idea generation is slower than idea testing. Walking is more exploratory than driving; idea generation is more exploratory than idea testing. Walking is much cheaper than driving but it may take a lot of walking to discover somewhere you want to drive; techniques for idea generation should be very cheap because it may take a lot of use of them to discover an idea worth testing. Walking is “softer” than driving; perhaps idea generation will never be as mathematical as idea testing. Walking is far more flexible than driving; idea generation methods must be far more flexible than idea testing methods. It is hard to drive somewhere that no one has ever driven before but it is easy or at least much easier to walk somewhere new. Which should suggest to a scientist that if all you know how to do is test ideas, it will be hard for you to innovate.
The way science is supported in America is horribly biassed against idea generation — grant proposals must be all about idea testing. I don’t know if the people who run that system have any idea how unbalanced and unhealthy it is.
Mary Soderstrom, a Montreal writer, has written a recently-published book called The Walkable City. From a blurb:
Over the same period there were also dramatic changes in the practice of science. Maybe the biggest change was the introduction of significance tests and associated logic. Just as cars took over cities, so did significance tests take over statistics textbooks. Cities built for cars made it hard to walk; statistics textbooks full of significance tests made it hard to teach how to generate ideas.
How to generate plausible new ideas — ideas worth testing — is pretty much a mystery to most scientists, as far as I can tell. The idea generation:idea testing :: walking:driving analogy provides a little guidance, and at least makes it clear that something is missing from today’s scientific education. Walking is slower than driving; idea generation is slower than idea testing. Walking is more exploratory than driving; idea generation is more exploratory than idea testing. Walking is much cheaper than driving but it may take a lot of walking to discover somewhere you want to drive; techniques for idea generation should be very cheap because it may take a lot of use of them to discover an idea worth testing. Walking is “softer” than driving; perhaps idea generation will never be as mathematical as idea testing. Walking is far more flexible than driving; idea generation methods must be far more flexible than idea testing methods. It is hard to drive somewhere that no one has ever driven before but it is easy or at least much easier to walk somewhere new. Which should suggest to a scientist that if all you know how to do is test ideas, it will be hard for you to innovate.
The way science is supported in America is horribly biassed against idea generation — grant proposals must be all about idea testing. I don’t know if the people who run that system have any idea how unbalanced and unhealthy it is.