"Lots of very very good people went on with the missing parameter for three hundred years—theory has the blinding effect that you don't even see the problem, because you are so used to thinking in its terms. There is a way it's always done, and it takes somebody who is naïve, as I was, to see that there is something very odd, and it's because I didn't know this theory that I was in fact able to see that." -
Daniel Kahneman, Master Class 2007: A Short Course in Thinking about Thinking, via www.edge.org [ Article ]
A constant point of difficulty in my life is Agency, specifically when to use it. Its close cousin, Authority, also brings its own complications which, for me, are usually associated more with when it should be used and just the general awkward, unbalancing effect of authority. This particular quote retrieved from a summary of an interview between, I believe, John Brockman and Daniel Kahneman, seems to touch on, what I find to be, an interesting interface between the authority of two people.
On the one hand, there are times when genuine inexperience with a subject creates false conclusions and a confused outlook. There is much to be said about experience. On the other hand though, there are times, such as an instance pointed out, that inexperience is a great tool to leverage against experience, a sanity check of sorts. There are times when we are all walking towards the ledge and someone needs to ask, "What are we doing, and why are we doing this?". However, being able to discern between these two situations is no doubt difficult, and as falsely presented, there are blurry degrees in between where, for example, the misunderstanding is simply a result of confused terms while the concepts might be in agreement.
Further complicating the issue, I think there is a higher probability that the experienced person will lay an accurate verdict upon the situation either accepting the indicated peculiarity, explaining it to relieve the confusion, or dismissing it altogether ( which probably is not a helpful method. Although, with some individuals, how much can you do? Forcing an issue very rarely yields a positive. ). However, there are obviously biases that could affect this verdict and pretty much kill any chance of, what I would call, healthy, productive discussion.
So I suppose, it is important to note that in any point of peculiarity raised by an individual, it is important to maintain a degree of non-attachment to your own personal views. Always shining a disclaimer upon a view is probably overkill. However, that seems to be the route I mostly took in this...entry.
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