Alan – you make good points, and having a collective misperception of the facts is obviously very dangerous, but remember also that many entrepreneurs are successful precisely because they push on and continue to believe in their visions when to other people it looks like the contrary evidence is overwhelming.

Terry – great article, thanks. It illustrates my point perfectly.

Sean – using metrics to drive a business is in general a good thing (clearly) and if done well can leave little room for intellectual dishonesty – but they are not the whole answer. Some things don’t lend themselves to measurement and it is of course possible to measure the wrong things.

Alan – you make good points, and having a collective misperception of the facts is obviously very dangerous, but remember also that many entrepreneurs are successful precisely because they push on and continue to believe in their visions when to other people it looks like the contrary evidence is overwhelming.

Terry – great article, thanks. It illustrates my point perfectly.

Sean – using metrics to drive a business is in general a good thing (clearly) and if done well can leave little room for intellectual dishonesty – but they are not the whole answer. Some things don’t lend themselves to measurement and it is of course possible to measure the wrong things.

I think what you might be getting at is that companies should remain based in the empirical evidence realm. This is what intellectual honesty is. When an objective measure starts to indicate that a way of doing business no longer works, then you must look at why, and how to change it – regardless of if it still feels subjectively like the right way to do things. It may feel that way simply because of habit!

I think what you might be getting at is that companies should remain based in the empirical evidence realm. This is what intellectual honesty is. When an objective measure starts to indicate that a way of doing business no longer works, then you must look at why, and how to change it – regardless of if it still feels subjectively like the right way to do things. It may feel that way simply because of habit!

http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2008/dec/05/python-3000/

It’s not directly relevant, but it’s nice and ties into the blinkered “that’s how we’ve always done it” theme.

Terry

http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2008/dec/05/python-3000/

It’s not directly relevant, but it’s nice and ties into the blinkered “that’s how we’ve always done it” theme.

Terry

I used to do a lot of turnaround / biz redesign work – the worst were the companies that had once been successful doing what they did, but then something changes and it don’t work anymore.

Problem is, the old way is ingrained – I liken it to setting course on a big sailing ship – you can’t just turn the wheel, you have to have crew skilled enough to reset all the sails – but in stable times people tend to forget (or companies get rid of those people )

Re intellectual honesty, I am also concerned about the tendency in Tech to hype stuff and to drink kool aid without observing (or admitting to) contrary evidence..

I used to do a lot of turnaround / biz redesign work – the worst were the companies that had once been successful doing what they did, but then something changes and it don’t work anymore.

Problem is, the old way is ingrained – I liken it to setting course on a big sailing ship – you can’t just turn the wheel, you have to have crew skilled enough to reset all the sails – but in stable times people tend to forget (or companies get rid of those people )

Re intellectual honesty, I am also concerned about the tendency in Tech to hype stuff and to drink kool aid without observing (or admitting to) contrary evidence..