newton vs einstein
DESCRIPTION
Slides for the Cardiff Web Scene meet up #4. I'm arguing for imperfection rather than perfection, for getting things done rather than thinking about getting things done...TRANSCRIPT
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newton and einstein
assumptions, exactitudes, perfection and creativity
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(when) do we need perfection?
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4
I am Mike Ellis
I have spent about ten years “doing” the web
I am a generalist, fiddler and dabbler
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I usually do presentations that try to suggest answers..
..this one is questions, all the way down
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newton, 1666 (86)
stuff continues // f=ma // action and reaction
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design of stuff around exact, elegant laws
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a simple description of the physical laws of the universe
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einstein, 1905
E=mc2
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in some circumstances, Newton is
only “approximately correct”
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and “approximately” makes people tense
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so is life complicated
after all?
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hopefully not
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14
after all..
cars drive...planes fly...scooters scoot...clocks run...banks fail...servers start...electricity flows...things fall to the ground...trains run (sometimes)...we get up in the morning...
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15
however much you look at something which is measured, "exact", you'll find assumptions: project plans, visitor numbers, motivations, ad-rates, budgets, economic ups and downs, user testing, focus groups, polls...
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"...we didn't need Einstein to put Armstrong on the moon"
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"the perfect truth is perhaps not to be had, and certainly isn't necessary for startling and brilliant success"
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i.e - is an (easy) approximation adequate, or actively better than a (difficult) exactitude?
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Voltaire (or Flaubert?): “perfection is the enemy of the good”
time
qualit
y
perfection
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can big teams be creative? can corporate bodies “innovate” ? can a government ever really “do” web 2.0?
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these are uncertainty
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22
“enterprise” vs “lightweight”,up-time, SLA’s, processors, top-down-ness vs bottom-upnessRDF and the semantic web...?
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obviously, this isn’t an either/or argument
but how much “thinking” vs “doing”?
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making things happen requires assumptions. Assumptions are inaccuracies. Inaccuracies are creative. Creativity is innovation.
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uncertainty is good if it encourages creativity
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26
I am at twitter.com/dmje, if you like that kind of thing
thanks for listening.
Seesaw http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaxl4/16950197Wrong way http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsevilla/97727582Questionhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/drachmann/327122302Duck http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmje/2883634706 Newton’s Lawshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/sunnyuk/2357899880 Simple http://www.flickr.com/photos/louganmanzke/2722701187Hairhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/ocularsmith/239674652Chaos http://www.flickr.com/photos/penny2036/2498097929FogAlone in London http://www.gapingvoid.com/0711alone.jpg SkyMoonhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/2482050441 Babel http://www.flickr.com/photos/pulpolux/384199243 Escapehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/practicalowl/329076696Truth http://www.flickr.com/photos/kxlly/349894433 Web..?Corporate http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhinson/1439657540 Peace and randomness http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephaneginer/2110759472