4 ms·
History shows that knowledge transfer is really, really hard. Humans are just not very good at it :( (A similar story is told of the spread of the use of Feynm
by pja 9y ago
History shows that knowledge transfer is really, really hard. Humans are just not very good at it :(
(A similar story is told of the spread of the use of Feynman diagrams in physics - I’ve read that their spread was far slower than you’d expect given their utility: For whatever reason it wasn’t enough to be told that they were an incredibly useful tool by people you trusted - it was only when non users actually worked together on problems with Feynman diagram users, or were taught by Feynman diagram users directly that their use actually spread. Both of these transfer methods required physical proximity which restricted the use of Feynman diagrams to a small number of labs for a surprisingly long time.)
- mcherm 9y agoFascinating story, do you have any idea where you read that?
- pja 9y agoNope, but a quick Google suggests that this paper: “Spreading the Tools of Theory: Feynman Diagrams in the USA, Japan, and the Soviet Union” by David Kaiser, Kenji Ito and Karl Hall http://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/Kaiser.SpreadingTools.pdf http://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/Kaiser.SpreadingTools.pdf must have been the original source research. edit: Also, there’s a book (by one of the authors of that paper): “Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion Of Feynman Diagrams In Postwar Physics” https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Y5W2X2 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Y5W2X2
- dctoedt 9y agoThe Kaiser et al. paper cited by 'pja is fascinating. This passage (at 887) practically puts the reader in the room at the Institute for Advanced Study: <blockquote> ... Thus, when [Freeman] Dyson arrived at the Institute for Advanced Study in September 1948, Feynman diagrams in hand, he immediately joined ten fellow ‘postdocs’ in theoretical physics, the largest cohort yet. [J. Robert Oppenheimer had reorganized the Institute to emphasize post-doc training for physicists; he was quoted as saying that "the best way to send information is to wrap it up in a person."] In fact, the new building that had been planned to hold offices for the newly expanded ranks had not been completed on time, so all of the postdocs wound up sharing desks in one large room for the first 6 weeks of their stay – an architectural arrangement perfectly suited for the sharing of tacit knowledge. They huddled around large tables swapping ideas, pressing Dyson to explain the details of how to use Feynman diagrams. He delivered several sets of long lectures to the group, supplemented by constant, informal conversations. By the winter of 1948–49, Dyson had organized them into several groups, each working on distinct diagrammatic calculations. One pair, Kenneth Watson and Joseph Lepore, worked with Dyson to calculate high-order terms in a certain model of nuclear forces, while another duo, Norman Kroll and Robert Karplus, took up Dyson’s lead to undertake similarly complex diagrammatic calculations in QED. So effective were Dyson’s tutorials that Wolfgang Pauli wrote to another of the young Institute theorists that May, asking what Dyson and the rest of the ‘Feynman-school’ were working on. </blockquote> (Extra paragraphing added.)
- dctoedt 9y ago'pja, you should post the Kaiser et al. paper to HN on its own.
- pja 9y agoThat's a good idea. Done.
- mcherm 9y agoThank you! That was really a great read, and I wouldn't have sought it out without your help.
- wpietri 9y agoDefinitely. And in this case I don't think it was just knowledge that needed transferring. It was culture and values. There's a This American Life episode (centered around what is now Tesla's plant) that covers this well: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/nummi-2015 https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/561/...