Nov 2022 - Year two of the disrupted decade |
Power of Observation Hi Thank you for being a reader of Transition Edge. Please feel free to forward it to friends who you think might enjoy it too. I’m Grant Symons. I convene Transition Edge
to help us understand how we can transition to a low carbon sustainable world using leading thinking and practices. Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was a Swiss-born natural scientist, a professor of zoology and geology in the predecessor of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. (Wikipedia) At the time, Agassiz was considered a formidable force in the 'classification of things' and trained and influenced a generation of American zoologists and paleontologists. By the time of his death
(December 14, 1873) he was the most famous scientist in America, and although he actually published few major scientific works after he emigrated, his popular books and public lectures made him extremely well known and respected by the public. Scientifically, however, he was being left behind by his absolute rejection of evolution and his racist attitudes, which were extreme even for his day.
Apparently one of Agassiz's approaches to introducing post-graduate students to the field was to provide them with a dead fish
and the instructions "Find what you can without damaging the specimen and write a description; when I think you have done the work, I will question you." The students, expecting to see Agassiz back later in the day, would not see
him for a week or more. The experience would be mindset and possibly future changing, and we can only assume there were ways to keep the smell at bearable levels! From the initial scan of the fish
in an hour or so, making some rough sketches and descriptions, the students would be faced with the complete inadequacy of their thinking and approach. It might be a day or so of soul searching before they realised that a much deeper and systematic approach was required. With a recalibration of their thinking and technique, some would go on to study the fish for an intense 100 hours or more over the following week or weeks, and in some cases produce "astonishing results", according to Agassiz.
So, what is the point of this and what were they doing? Our world and times are changing. We write about this frequently on the Edge. We see it in our communities, in the news and across the spectrum of social media. Yet we sense that we are a long way from really understanding what we are seeing. Just like Agassiz's new students, what seems like a familiar thing may in fact be concealing some important differences, details and relationships. And these are changing over time, which can be all the
more worrying, because we tend towards ignoring things like the grass growing... until we have a problem. Think extraction of plastic from the ocean, as opposed to a tough lawn mowing job. Changes in the environment, economy,
institutions and culture, among a range of other things, continue to shift us further from where we ought to be, while we don't notice how and by how much. It is likely that getting better at
observation and consideration of what we are actually seeing, will increasingly favor those intent on building resilience and enabling their transition to a realistic future. Those that try and predict what is going to happen or get carried away with romancing fanciful visions that cannot come true, may not do as well.
Key elements of observation Looking and seeing - Enquiring mind, wanting to understand
- Openness to looking beyond the superficial and first impressions
- Setting aside biases
Comparing
objects - deep inspection - Close inspection of objects and their relationship to other related and surrounding objects
- Differences, similarities between, like and opposing objects
- Symmetries, patterns, functions, relationships
Differences over
time - Physical changes
- Social/cultural changes
- Emerging phenomena and change indicators
Having the world's information available on our phone seems on the one hand incredibly powerful, but perhaps it is also dangerous. Are we losing our ability to observe, think critically, form hypothesis or hold a position? As the saying goes "The devil is often in the detail". How deeply do most of us think now, as we wander aimlessly through shopping malls or spend hours looking at other people's photographs on social media? What are we really observing on TikTok, Twitter and most forms of social media? Instant gratification and dopamine might have a bit to do with it. What are we really observing in the changes in our political, governance and financial institutions? We think that it is possible and timely to improve our powers of observation - the results might just be a better transition. Join us on this journey in 2023. - - - This week's quote “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" - Aristotle
Grant Symons - The Transition Guy |
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