Abstract
In the preceding chapters I have a number of times alluded to the notion of “performance systems”. By “performance system” I mean a system whose primary obligation is to produce certain goods and services: print and distribute checks to the needy, make arrests, teach children to read and write, collect taxes, run prisons, create jobs, or fly to the moon. While no performance system is exempted from the need to learn and improve, my stress on the “performance” aspect is in order to emphasize that the primary responsibility and interest to perform — ‘we have got a job to do’ — overrides and constrains the ability to learn.
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Notes
In science and philosophy, Elkana (1984, p. 489) explains, “it is often claimed that, in order to be a realist it is not enough to admit the existence of a world ‘out there’, but that it is also necessary to accept that there is a way of knowing which of any two contradictory conceptual frameworks is the true one...” But, Elkana holds, “a belief in a world out there and a belief that there is no established way to judge between two opposite theories, translations, or conceptual frameworks go very well together”.
One’s overall tendency towards “openness” or “closedness” could be depicted as a point on a continuum. But this “on average” characterization might be quite misleading when we consider a concrete question, problem, or premise. What governs one’s attitude toward a given message, at a given point in time, is not one’s overall “openness” but the way one holds the premise that is being challenged by that message — as either contestable, or uncontestable.
During flight readiness review of flight 51-C, Thiokol’s conclusion ended with the memorable (very much like “separate but equal”) “... not desireable but is acceptable” (The Rogers Report, p.136).
The advise given by the Staretz to the father in The Brothers Karamazov, who wanted to know: “And what must I do to gain salvation?”
A similar connection between the Challenger accident — and other failures — and the lack of effective science advising to the president has been suggested by R.L. Garwin (1988, p. 146), S. Drell (1988, p. 123), and L.M. Branscomb (1988, p. 46).
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Dery, D. (1990). Hostile Data in Performance Systems. In: Data and Policy Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2187-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2187-0_4
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