written March 23rd, 2009 · 0 comments

I listened to this interview today between Russ Roberts and Nassim Taleb. It was extremely interesting for me! He talks about how he believes that we’ve been messed up by knowledge, that we over estimate our knowledge and the good old fashioned trial and error can work far better for mankind. Taleb was referring specifically to the area of medicine, where he has done much research on the subject. He believes directed research does not yield the results that undirected research does and has. This is simply because our minds need the freedom to tinker. We come across unexpected results when there are no limits set.

This ties over to art as well, and therefore I am quite interested in the theory. I often use mistakes or the results of visual experiments in my design, because it gives an unexpected charge to the piece and most definitely creativity. What I create will be completely unique because of my individual process of experimentation and conceptualizing. Experimentation is what process is in design, and in my experience, it is the best way I develope great ideas .

Here is a short bio about Nassim Taleb from his website:

What I do: I am interested in how to live in a world we don’t understand very well –in other words, while most human thought (particularly since the enlightenment) has focused us on how to turn knowledge into decisions, I am interested in how to turn lack of information, lack of understanding, and lack of “knowledge” into decisions –how not to be a “turkey”. My last book The Black Swan drew a map of what we don’t understand; my current work focuses on how to domesticate the unknown .

I enjoyed this line at the bottom of his website, because I had this exact thought while reading it through:  Also please please refrain from offering to “improve” my web site. (but it really could be much more ledgible if designed better!)