Learning to be True is Better than Learning to be Right

Another blog that this site connects to is Seth Godin's. One of Seth's post particularly applicable is on “The need to be right”. Often more energy is spent trying to support our positions than in trying to find the truth. Seth offers a different perspective.

I like being wrong. Not enough to make a habit of it, but enough to realize that I'm actively testing scenarios. Take a fact of dubious authenticity, riff a scenario around it and see if it feels right. That act of scenario building is a key factor in brainstorming, in creativity and in problem solving. If you need the core fact to be guaranteed right and perfect, you're doomed, because facts like that are in short supply.

Another insightful post was “What you need to fight the manual” on how to change yourself to keep from being outsourced. The idea of depending upon a manual can be expanded to the rest of life. Because we all write our own standard operating paradigms in life, which we come to depend upon. Combining both of these perspectives of Seth give the following insight.

I know, there's a huge need to have right facts and right practice, particularly in jobs where quality of service is essential. Got that. My point is that we're so good at getting those sort of facts right that maybe, just maybe, we need to spend more time teaching people the other stuff. Short version: if your job can be completely written up in a manual, it's either not a great job or it's going to be done by someone cheaper, sometime soon

Finally Seth provides a great connection for the Web 2.0 realm. How to do everything better (online). According to Seth,

The folks at mashable.com do absolutely amazing work. In addition to a useful news feed about what's up online, they regularly put together lists of stuff to make you more productive

Seth also provides his own list of impressive mash-ups

Do the Mash (Even if You Don't Know All the Steps)

Despite what Business Pundit might advise this New York Times TECHNOLOGY / CIRCUITS from September 2, 2007 advises us to jump in.

Novelties: Do the Mash (Even if You Don't Know All the Steps) by ANNE EISENBERG

Several companies are creating online systems to let ordinary people create useful computer applications by combining different information sources.

Another Average Joe

Even though I am one of the "average joes" trying to do new things I have to agree to some extent with the sentiment of the Businesspundit: The Dangers of Re-Use: How MashUps Can Stifle Innovation . The author it turns out works at a deeper level of web 2.0 than most of the average joes out there. Re-use though often creates errors in the most mundane of tasks. That is why I believe the exposure to other disciplines such as design will help round out one's approach to a medium which is becoming more important in creating benefit in the world.

Placed under Paradigm Pathways Web 2.0 Pathway