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Accepting the premise, I think the most interesting question is: how do non-farmers learn enough about farmers' problems to solve one? Generally, how do non-sp
by davi 17y ago
Accepting the premise, I think the most interesting question is: how do non-farmers learn enough about farmers' problems to solve one?
Generally, how do non-specialists find enough out about a specialized world to solve a problem from that world? And then, learn enough about the specialist culture to successfully sell into that culture?
(Not accepting the premise, a few clicks through gives its origin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#The_Economy_of_Cities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#The_Economy_of_Citi...)
- wglb 17y agoYou have to spend significant time there, would be one way. A related but seemingly tangential question is when a young rancher is about to be married, he would do well to pick a rancher's daughter. Better for the farm boy to go to college, pick up a wide range of ideas, go back to the farm. Probably the best way to get outside ideas implemented.
- cazzy123 17y agoRight -- the big question here is, What is the optimal amount of knowledge you should have about a problem / market? There are diminishing returns at some point.
- billswift 17y agoSee "How to Learn About Everything" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=628413 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=628413 And I don't see "diminishing returns" in knowledge as significant. There is always something else relevant to learn, maybe in another field but still relevant.
- HeyLaughingBoy 17y agoShort answer is: they're brought in as "consultants." By "consultants" I don't mean blue-suited guys from Accenture. A consultant could be the local machinist who is asked to make a gearbox to connect two diesel engines together and then realizes that he could sell a bunch of them to other farmers. There is considerable value in having friends whose interests are radically different from your own.