As usual, a thought-provoking article, which forced me several times to the dictionary! A general impression that came spontaneously to mind (while reading this article) was akin to that old adage: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Specifically, I recalled that I have long been annoyed with business/quality improvement methodologies, such as six sigma, which (among other things) suggest that you must always be changing the way you work, even when things are functioning properly - that somehow, near perfection is the only laudable approach to making things. (Don’t get me wrong, please; many things must have high quality standards, like automobiles and high rise buildings. It’s the hyper focus on constantly tinkering with what works well already that irks me.) Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas!
Alas, I suspect that that is largely the human condition. Whether it's operating implicitly within a temperalist society, at the level of simply trying to secure resources under harsh Darwinian conditions, or more explicitly once relief of those harsh conditions allow spatials to spread through the society, with their disposition to constantly pursue the novel. But I hear you.
And all the best to you for the coming year, as well. Always appreciate your contribution to the comments.
Would it be fair to summarise this a little crudely as a tendency toward abstraction? The more heavily reliant societies become upon rationalised (and especially technicized) abstract discourses the more that recursive social action is undermined. I should confess that I am reading ...On Trial and ...Phenotype Wars in parallel. 10-20 pages of one, then a similar amuse bouche of the other. Alas, I tend to read MANY books, simultaneously, this way.
(
For a fairly short and very engaging account of how the tendency toward abstraction at one level, fatally conjoined with the elevation of "student experience", hollows out academia I'd recommend Zombie University by Sinead Murphy.
Yes, Karen, certainly abstraction is an important part of the story. And abstracting is a characteristic feature of the spatial phenotype, given their propensity for transgressing norms and boundaries. And of course such proclivity is beneficial to human flourishing initially, fueling innovation in the arts and sciences. But eventually it does contribute to a loosening of humanity's negative feedback loop with nature -- unleashing the unconstrained vision (to use the language employed in Plea).
I too sometimes cross-cut my reading like that; with the right books it can be most fruitful!
I always appreciate reading recommendations, but, alas, the truth is my current reading list is so long I don't have the years ahead of me to get through it all. *insert wry smiley face here*
As usual, a thought-provoking article, which forced me several times to the dictionary! A general impression that came spontaneously to mind (while reading this article) was akin to that old adage: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Specifically, I recalled that I have long been annoyed with business/quality improvement methodologies, such as six sigma, which (among other things) suggest that you must always be changing the way you work, even when things are functioning properly - that somehow, near perfection is the only laudable approach to making things. (Don’t get me wrong, please; many things must have high quality standards, like automobiles and high rise buildings. It’s the hyper focus on constantly tinkering with what works well already that irks me.) Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas!
Alas, I suspect that that is largely the human condition. Whether it's operating implicitly within a temperalist society, at the level of simply trying to secure resources under harsh Darwinian conditions, or more explicitly once relief of those harsh conditions allow spatials to spread through the society, with their disposition to constantly pursue the novel. But I hear you.
And all the best to you for the coming year, as well. Always appreciate your contribution to the comments.
Would it be fair to summarise this a little crudely as a tendency toward abstraction? The more heavily reliant societies become upon rationalised (and especially technicized) abstract discourses the more that recursive social action is undermined. I should confess that I am reading ...On Trial and ...Phenotype Wars in parallel. 10-20 pages of one, then a similar amuse bouche of the other. Alas, I tend to read MANY books, simultaneously, this way.
(
For a fairly short and very engaging account of how the tendency toward abstraction at one level, fatally conjoined with the elevation of "student experience", hollows out academia I'd recommend Zombie University by Sinead Murphy.
https://repeaterbooks.com/product/zombie-university-thinking-under-control/
)
Yes, Karen, certainly abstraction is an important part of the story. And abstracting is a characteristic feature of the spatial phenotype, given their propensity for transgressing norms and boundaries. And of course such proclivity is beneficial to human flourishing initially, fueling innovation in the arts and sciences. But eventually it does contribute to a loosening of humanity's negative feedback loop with nature -- unleashing the unconstrained vision (to use the language employed in Plea).
I too sometimes cross-cut my reading like that; with the right books it can be most fruitful!
I always appreciate reading recommendations, but, alas, the truth is my current reading list is so long I don't have the years ahead of me to get through it all. *insert wry smiley face here*