Teaching and the Hierarchy of Chunks
12 May 2011
It seems as though most things start off complicated.
The World That No Longer Exists
9 May 2011
"In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer.
Invariably people of alls stripes think things should be done better. But "doing things better" often translates into doing more of whatever wasn't working before.
For instance. You run a gigantic educational bureaucracy. One with centralised curricula, standardised testing, etc, etc. It is failing to educate people. What do you do? Ah, we need more centralisation, more testing, more curricula, more teachers, more, more, more.
Your business is starting to lose money, or starting to look dodgy? What do you do? More of what you were doing before. In Microsoft's case that means you start producing versions of Windows more often :-). In the record industries case it means stopping the new technology through legal means so you can continue to distribute plastic disks. In the case of newspaper publishers it means ... trying to replicate the business you had offline in the online world - subscriptions! ads! paper! wait ... paper?
In the military-industrial complex's case you fight more wars. In the financial elite's case you print more money. In the left wing commentariat's case, that means regulating more and more of society. In the case of the rightwing commentariat's case, it means less and less regulation.
You have a problem with long term unemployed people? More jobs! More courses! More sticks! More carrots! More stupid metaphors such as "sticks" and "carrots"!
Whatever it is, it means doing more of whatever wasn't working before.
Personalities are like this, too. It seems to be part of the human condition. If what I am doing now isn't working then ... I need to do more of it, goddammit! That will make it work!
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