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Re: Brain-storming (was: barometer parable)



At 11:42 -0500 6/9/02, Brian Whatcott wrote:

Some of you will have gathered over time, an impression
of Hugh as a reasonable and well-prepared contributor to this list.
You might be surprised [with me] at this relatively dismissive, intolerant
posture to brain-storming, which he confessed.

I'm flattered by your first sentence, disturbed by the second. I
don't think that I "dismissed" brainstorming (although I will admit
that I'm not enamored of the name for this activity, which, in the
days before some management consultant thought up the name we used to
call "a few of the guys sitting around with a beer or two and kicking
a few ideas about"). What I was scornful of was the mindless version
so loved by the management consultant-types. I believe I am
relatively open to new and different ideas (where else would I get
all my good ideas if I didn't steal them from the people who came up
with them before I did), but I admit that there are some areas that I
would rather not probe--I don't believe in Superman, the Easter Bunny
or ESP, among other things--and I get annoyed when subjects like
these are repeatedly brought up and I'm not allowed to make a
disparaging remark or two about them at the time.

I can think of a few ideas that were pursued that IMO could only have
been the product of one of these witless brainstorming sessions. The
DoD project where they got a bunch of psychics together to see if
they could locate Soviet submarines by ESP is one that pops into my
head. That one soaked up several millions of our tax-dollars, IIRC. I
don't think they came up with any subs, either. And the police
departments who occasionally use a psychic to try to find a missing
person, or clues, or the like. I haven't seen any evidence that any
of them have produced anything useful.

On the other hand, I am positively delighted when a student comes up
with a solution to a problem that has stumped me, or a cleaner, more
elegant one than I have been able to find. On more than one occasion,
a student who was not locked into the paradigm I was stuck in has
showed me a much more productive line of approach, and I think I was
properly appreciative at the time. I don't recall ever being upset
when a student pointed out an error of mine, even an egregious one,
and I have made plenty of them. What I do wish is that more students
would be more attentive and find even more of them--it would save me
lots of time because then I could fix things on the spot, rather than
having to come in the next day and correct my own stupidities.

I think one can be in favor of new and innovative thinking without
having to accept the entirety of the brainstorming concept.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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