Jack,<\/p>\n
I think there are so many disconnects between what formulas describe and what they\u2019re used for, once you see it, you\u2019ll wonder why we have not noticed the defect in thinking of \u2018everything\u2019 in terms of formulas right from the start.\u00a0 How we\u2019ve made use of formulas has never been to actually follow them.<\/p>\n
Their best use is always as learning tools.\u00a0 That\u2019s how we test them too, but then seem to ignore how critically important the learning process is to making them work.\u00a0Take the problem of sitting at dinner and picking up a glass of water to drink.\u00a0 We have a \u2018formula\u2019 for where the glass should be, at the upper right of the place.<\/p>\n
We have to look at the actual environment, though, in which we are attempting to use the formula, to not make a complete mess of the operation as a rule.\u00a0 The formula does not give you a useful location for the glass, but a useful start to reaching out for it.<\/p>\n
Similarly you could ask how it would work to shake someone\u2019s hand if all you had was a statistical representation of where the other person\u2019s hand sould be.\u00a0 You\u2019d simply never get a good firm handshake out of it even if waving your hand around in the \u2019statistical phase space\u2019 of your model eventually resulted in your hand bumping into the other person\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
That very traditional relationship between \u2018theory\u2019 and \u2018practice\u2019 (i.e. science and engineering) has been traditionally ignored by the theorists it seems\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The theory guys like to think that they were the \u2018priests\u2019 of knowledge or something, with invented abstractions being somehow superior to direct learning experience\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 The truth seems to be that theory comes from, and is only useful as an extension of, the learning methods of practice, and has no inherent value at all.<\/p>\n
The tricky places are where there\u2019s no theory, where nature is inventing whole new ways of behaving that only learning experience will expose at all.\u00a0 It\u2019s those, along with a practical way of organizing historical data, I\u2019m mostly talking about with my \u2018bump on a curve\u2019 model for questions to ask about what\u2019s \u2018happening\u2019 in developmental change\u2026 (\u00b8\u00b8.\u2022\u00b4 \u00af `\u2022.\u00b8\u00b8)\u00a0\u00a0 I describe one example as a metaphor for others in the first 3 paragraphs of my main web page.<\/p>\n
Does that help?<\/p>\n
Best,<\/p>\n
Phil Henshaw<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jack, I think there are so many disconnects between what formulas describe and what they\u2019re used for, once you see it, you\u2019ll wonder why we have not noticed the defect in thinking of \u2018everything\u2019 in terms of formulas right from the start.\u00a0 How we\u2019ve made use of formulas has never been to actually follow them. … Continue reading What\u2019s a formula anyway\u2026?<\/span>