Innovation and Rules of Thumb

nanomech — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:49:48 +0000

Why are Rules of Thumb (RoT) useful for certain occasions, why do they tend to lose meaning with time, and when should they be discarded for new horizons? We find RoT to be historically and regionally limiting because they have been integrated within the context of the whole system for a relevant interval in time. Never forget the importance of the environment and the system, as RoT are embedded within the environment that surrounds them! RoT are shorthand transmissions that assist our memories for annual cycles or infrequent events, and provide an initial story for further expansion of lore. As such, RoT have a shelf life when misused: typically devolving over repeated transmissions (that do not expand with lore) such that they lose contact to the original environment that gave them meaning in the first place. We are often presented with RoT that are so general and uninformative that they may actually be of limited use to the challenge at hand. Worse yet, RoT may actually stunt or inhibit our ability to transform a new context into a useful fresh application.

Lore: all the facts and traditions about a particular subject that have been accumulated over time through education or experience.

The source of all RoT on the web!

“A rule of thumb…is an easy-to-remember guide that falls somewhere between a mathematical formula and a shot in the dark. A farmer, for instance, knows to plant his corn when oak leaves are the size of squirrels’ ears. An economics professor knows from sad experience that inviting more than 25 percent of the guests for a university dinner party from the economics department ruins the conversation. Rules of thumb are a kind of tool. They help you appraise a problem or situation. They make it easier to consider the subtleties of the topic at hand; they give you a feel for a subject.

A hundred years ago, people used rules of thumb to make up for a lack of facts. Modern day rule of thumbing is rooted in an overabundance of facts. The average person, confronted with the Internet’s oceans of data and multiple overlapping Ph.D. dissertations, often is as perplexed as a pioneer chemist trying to whip up a little gunpowder without a formula. A pilot in a tight spot doesn’t ask questions about aeronautical engineering; a pilot in a tight spot asks “now what?” There are times when you don’t need to know the best way to do something. These are times for ballpark figures, for knowing what you probably can get away with.”

Heliotactic Press » Rules of thumb

Innovation and Rules of Thumb