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The scientific method. Don't look at the world through the lens of your knowledge. In fact, forget about the word knowledge. Replace it with "hypothesis". The
by kqr 5y ago
The scientific method. Don't look at the world through the lens of your knowledge. In fact, forget about the word knowledge. Replace it with "hypothesis".
The world is a lab. Shape it in ways which you think will prove your hypotheses false.
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoI was more thinking about how to get the people around me, who don't think like that automatically, to work with me on that process. I can see and understand the pointlessness happening, which is a bit alienating when other people think they are doing hard important work and I think/know they aren't, and I need their buy in to avoid them asking me to also do things I know are pointless. If I wanted to do pointless things (and I'm not sure I'm even capable of that) I could probably get paid a lot more by changing job, but I'd rather change my job to be less pointless, as it seems better for my mental health.
- kqr 5y agoAha. To some extent I think it's a hiring and/or organisational values thing. You need the right people to congratulate each other on the right types of work for it to be a long-term sustained thing. There are also some more formalised versions of the scientific process applied to the workplace. Mike Rother's Improvement Kata come to mind. Edit: also get good at negotiation! People are complicated and refuse help even when they obviously need it. Being a good negotiator ideally helps everyone. Second edit: another thing is leading by example. That's been very powerful in my experience.
- hinkley 5y agoWhen you discover they’re solving the wrong problem after they’ve invested in their non-solution, people can get pretty defensive, too.