Rapid Idea Improvement

Bruce Nielson (@bnielson01) explains the 4 strands of the Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) The 4 strands contain our 4 deepest theories about reality: The theory of evolution - (specifically the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution / Richard Dawkins refinement of Darwinian theory of evolution): how life evolves, how we can explain how species look like and behave, and how they ca...

Should we centralise or de-centralise activities in organisations ? And why ?

I argue that both of these statemnts are incorrect/ incomplete: The hard sciences (physics, chemistry, biology) are "exact" sciences The social sciences (psychology, sociology, economics, ...) are "different", and therefore not "exact", so we can treat them differently

Empathy is …the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner It results in a statement/ idea about the other: I think/ know that this person feels this … And here is th...

The Church-Turing-Deutsch thesis: Every physical process can be simulated, to arbitrary precision, by a universal computing device. This claim seems to be the pinnacle claim of all realist claims, I go into it's various consequences for realism There is a reality out there - actually 1 reality We can create knowledge about that reality That knowledge is not only descriptive but also explanatory (g...

Some thoughts on why i don't think that big data = power Or better: why there is much more to it than that

Discussions are about ideas, not people Start from a problem to solve (a difficulty) Ideas solve problems in a specific way (they are not random or standard, general recipes) Ideas are transparent and written down Ideas should be explanations, not just descriptions The hierarchy should participate in the improvement of ideas (offering criticisms, not imposing them or not show no intrest at all in...

Any person wanting to realise any thing (for example in a company) needs 2 things: Ideas - I.e. information about: where do I stand today ? What do I want next ? Where should I aim for and how do I get there ? Conviction: an explanation (by that person) for why the idea is important and will succeed

What do I mean ? In management, we tend to “replace” actual ideas with approximations too easily and too quickly High level statements about goals, visions, attitudes Numbers about everything (dashboards, …) Why do we do this ? Simplicity: it becomes measurable and spreadable Assume that the approximation will do the job Does it work Ideas do something different than approximations Alternative Foc...

Sales management methods typically deal with procedures, practises, policies, dashboards with numbers (actuals vs target), etc But what is the role of the ideas of sales people in all of this ? And the role of improving those ideas ?

Coaching/ Training = tackling the question “How should one behave?” Emotionally / operationally The more important thing = tackling the question “What should I/ we do next, why and how ?” People solve problems “in the action” - they are not thinking “how should I behave ?” while doing things and trying to make progress

Some thoughts related to a post of Simon Sinek saying: “Take the risk of optimism”

Karl Popper explained that an argument never should go like: I am sure of <your theory/ conviction/ belief> because of all these reasons: … He explained that arguments should go like this: Here is my theory … and it has these flaws: .... Here is another theory which has less flaws so might be more useful … The problem with first way It assumes that knowledge cannot grow: that there are only...

So here is the key question that every CEO, leader or manager asks him/ herself: Given that I know where to go with this company, & how,  ... how can my idea spread so everyone knows it ?

Can you compare the effect of 2 different election systems in any given democracy ? It's hard ! You cannot do controlled experiments like in science: too many different influences at play when comparing any 2 countries with different election systems. However, you can compare the effect of election systems on 1 key thing that matters: how do they influence the growth of knowledge (i.e. the growth...

According to Karl Popper: a problem is a conflict between ideas Think = solving problems = growing knowledge (knowledge containing less and less conflicts) Thinking is not : finding more arguments for your case, that is static. Knowledge doesn’t grow when you do that So Popper was after the growth of knowledge all the way Our knowledge is never final, never confirmed, and given our fallibility we...

They should start from existing internal ideas … and act as a party that tries to enhance the content of those ideas …. … in such a way that those internal ideas actually improve but still remain internal (*only* internal ideas get executed: an idea that sits only in the mind of a consultant, can, by definition, never be executed)

A little upfront warning. In a good Popperian sense: a critique is aimed at improving something, not at throwing it out. I am not suggesting to NOT set goals. Anyway here are the 4 critiques The future is unpredictable Setting a goal is kinda predicting Sticking to the goal is counterproductive People spend time energy and ideas trying to pursue something that in the end will have to be changed on...

About the focus on improving ideas/ error correction in the Pactify approach

Some thoughts on whether and when management consulting works.

Self-help advice (tips& tricks, books, coachings, ...) do seem to contain valuable knowledge in and off itself. But is that all that is needed for them to work ?

The demarkation between good and bad cultures may be: the difference in speed with which good versus bad ideas travel in a group.

I am discussing the list of "constraints" that Popper applies to critical and rational thinking: No confirmation or verification of a theory is possible No induction without error correction allowed No credences for theories, that's useless No absolute sources of knowledge exist No foundations of knowledge exist No certainty possible No recognition of truth is possible No forecasts possible No saf...

The appeal to "cooperate" or "to do this together" is often coercive: it's a way to ensure everyone aligns to what you want. Real cooperation is different. Real cooperation = distributing autonomy + seeking consent around a new idea = not forcing everyone on 1 line It is impossible to get everyone on 1 line before starting something, and it is impossible to do that at every step of the way. So you...

Episode 75 - A misconception about communication : when you have communicated, you’re not “done” … you merely just started.