Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: useful experience?
Author: David McCusker Posted: 9/21/2000; 2:14:31 PM Topic: Debunking the OSS Bazaar? Msg #: 21611 (In response to 21603) Prev/Next: 21610 / 21612
Jeff Imig: I'm thinking particularly of dancing experience. It's a lot better (more useful) for me if I quit making choices and quit being analytical. As Paula Abdul said: "Shut up and Dance."When I'm brief it's more opaque. The word 'analytical' has a lot of baggage, and these days analysis might accidentally be understood to mean that which caused Hamlet to fail because he considered without acting. I was thinking more along the lines of 'notice' but with a touch of 'evaluate'.
Thus, Paula Abdul might say, notice if you fall on your butt and stop doing that if possible. I'm sure she doesn't mean to dance any old way and don't try to improve.
By analysis I mean more being able to see the results of your actions, so your brain has a chance to evaluate more cause and effect options. When a field of endeavor is either intellectual or ambiguous, it can be hard to focus on what might be the result of actions. When you are dancing, falling down has a degree of obviousness that might be lacking elsewhere.
In the back of my mind I was also thinking of some cognitive research with animals, where one animal (a cat) was allowed more free movement and another was along for the ride without being able to drive the process. The result of the research tended to indicate that being involved with both doing and seeing was more important than just seeing.
It's important to both do and see what happens. If you don't see what happens because you don't pay attention (or you are looking somewhere else) then doing might have little value.
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