I have been in many conversations where a lot of ideas and concepts were thrown around, but discussion of whether it would actually work was limited. If I pointed out times something had already been tried, and failed, and it sounded a lot like the ideas being discussed, people got uncomfortable. Sometimes the discomfort was sadness or anger that I was raining on their parade, or being too nitpicky. I preferred that to the times when the answer was “You don’t understand, I’m taking the thirty thousand foot view, so I’m not really getting into details right now.
Because of that, I created the category “Technician Tuesday” when I started this blog. Ideas are great, but how are they being implemented? How am I using technology around me? How do someone else’s ideas interact with the rest of the world.
Today, I listened to a recording of a discussion between Dr. Temple Grandin and Dr. Jordan Peterson. It was all about the importance of practical hands-on knowledge and experimentation. Applications of ideas are the true test of those ideas. A lot of that knowledge and experimentation is being lost.
The discussion was very interesting and very troubling. I’ll be buying a copy of Dr. Grandin’s most recent book.