Some remarkable things happen to our bodies when we don’t eat fresh food for a long time. From the absence of Vitamin C alone, the waste matter of our brain builds up, and the body begins to disintegrate. Cartilage disappears, old wounds unknit, the gums weaken until the teeth fall loose, and the blood vessels leak, swelling limbs, blackening bones that have started to crack, and blistering beneath the skin until they ulcerate forth. The mind is affected too, as the brain fails to produce various hormones and neurotransmitters, leading to intense, unregulated emotions, and overwhelming senses. Sights, smells, and tastes at turns provoke intense disgust, joy, or despair — sometimes excitement enough to burst the long-weakening arteries and provoke a fatal aneurysm.
> It is possible to discover that a thing works, and even to use it for hundreds upon hundreds of years. But without knowing why it works, its potential will never be realised.
Great piece. There are probably examples in every field, but in business there is certainly a tendency to try to cargo cult ideas from other successful businesses, but the attempts at doing so often are the equivalent of boiling vegetables here. Or in economics, the idea that aggressively printing money is the only way to get out of a deflationary spiral, which in hindsight took a surprising amount of time to be widely accepted, probably because it conflicted with other ideas people held dear.
Yes, I had education, management, psychology, etc specifically in mind for that last comment. So many moving parts and false positive and negatives that the fads will surely come and go - boiling vegetables, as you say! (That's a nice turn of phrase, which I'll likely nick)
Thanx for a most interesting post, which I found depressing. But it is useful in demonstrating the necessity of knowing not only what works, but why it works.
I wonder whether in other circumstances the apparent unreliability of products or processes led to the development of ritual: if you follow these steps in precisely this manner it will be effective; otherwise it will lose its power.
Yes, it reminds me of Joe Henrich's example of cassava processing - I wonder if that's what you had in mind. Ritual would certainly help in conserving this kind of purely observational knowledge. Much like the Lemnian earth that I wrote about the other day, too.
in 1747 James Lind, performing one of the first controlled clinical experiments, found that oranges and lemons were effective antiscorbutics. It took another century for that dietary supplement to become routine. Part of the delay was institutional inertia, but much reflected the magnitude of misunderstanding, including by Lind himself, who went to his grave puzzled by scurvy's cause and treatment. Apparently (I've only read brief snippets of the primary sources) he concluded from his 1747 experiment that the key factor was sourness, leading to repeated unsuccessful efforts to use thoroughly boiled citrus juices (aiming to preserve, but actually destroying the vitamin), and diluted sulfuric acid.
> It is possible to discover that a thing works, and even to use it for hundreds upon hundreds of years. But without knowing why it works, its potential will never be realised.
Great piece. There are probably examples in every field, but in business there is certainly a tendency to try to cargo cult ideas from other successful businesses, but the attempts at doing so often are the equivalent of boiling vegetables here. Or in economics, the idea that aggressively printing money is the only way to get out of a deflationary spiral, which in hindsight took a surprising amount of time to be widely accepted, probably because it conflicted with other ideas people held dear.
Yes, I had education, management, psychology, etc specifically in mind for that last comment. So many moving parts and false positive and negatives that the fads will surely come and go - boiling vegetables, as you say! (That's a nice turn of phrase, which I'll likely nick)
A very clever and convenient authentication tool!
Thanx for a most interesting post, which I found depressing. But it is useful in demonstrating the necessity of knowing not only what works, but why it works.
I wonder whether in other circumstances the apparent unreliability of products or processes led to the development of ritual: if you follow these steps in precisely this manner it will be effective; otherwise it will lose its power.
Yes, it reminds me of Joe Henrich's example of cassava processing - I wonder if that's what you had in mind. Ritual would certainly help in conserving this kind of purely observational knowledge. Much like the Lemnian earth that I wrote about the other day, too.
one of the most important accounts of Arab involvement with Vikings is Ahmed bin Fadlan's book, you should check that out.
in 1747 James Lind, performing one of the first controlled clinical experiments, found that oranges and lemons were effective antiscorbutics. It took another century for that dietary supplement to become routine. Part of the delay was institutional inertia, but much reflected the magnitude of misunderstanding, including by Lind himself, who went to his grave puzzled by scurvy's cause and treatment. Apparently (I've only read brief snippets of the primary sources) he concluded from his 1747 experiment that the key factor was sourness, leading to repeated unsuccessful efforts to use thoroughly boiled citrus juices (aiming to preserve, but actually destroying the vitamin), and diluted sulfuric acid.