[Sigia-l] what are best practices (was OT: Library Thing)

[Eric Scheid]

On 4/10/05 7:23 PM, "Listera" <listera at rcn.com> wrote:

>> the latter requires the former
> 
> It's very difficult to argue with you when you don't read/parse the source
> material I post. In the medical example I gave, the "best practice" for
> years was wrong. Somebody had to, heaven forbid, defy the orthodoxy to
> "innovate" a solution/cure. The innovation was defying not requiring it.

I'm in Australia. Do you think the fact that two Australians just won a
Nobel Prize hasn't been in the news every chance all damn day?

Of course there was scepticism to their new theory, because that's how
science works. If you have a theory which contradicts what has so far been
supported by evidence, the onus is on you to prove the theory. Do
experiments. 

Another thing: they didn't "innovate" a solution/cure -- that implies they
started with the problem and set out to find a solution. Instead, one of
them noticed something (bacteria in a biopsy), and took a closer look. Then
formed a hypothesis. Then conducted an experiment (drank a beaker of the
bacterium solution!), and then observed the effects.

Funnily enough, in science, "best practice" is 1) observe some phenomena, 2)
form a hypothesis, 3) perform experiments to test the hypothesis, 4) observe
the results, 4) go to step (2). It's called the scientific process.

Enough though. This thread has gone more than off track.


>>> An innovation that doesn't solve a problem is an oxymoron.
>> 
>>     in·no·va·tion n
>>     1.    the act or process of inventing or introducing something new
> 
> Which assumes there's something "old" that is problematic, that needs
> solving.

Where does that assumption come from? The only requirement is that it be
new. It doesn't need a pre-existing inferior solution, nor does it need to
be more effective. It only need to be new to be innovative.

We've all seen various innovative "solutions" to non-problems, or even new
ways to solve real problems which turn out to be worse than what it
replaced.

e.