… although the future is not predictable in any detail, it is manageable as an aggregate phenomenon." ― Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial
It is true that humanity is faced with many problems. It always has been but perhaps not always with such keen awareness of them as we have today. We might be more optimistic if we recognized that we do not have to solve all of these problems. Our essential task—a big enough one to be sure—is simply to keep open the options for the future or perhaps even to broaden them a bit by creating new variety and new niches. Our grandchildren cannot ask more of us than that we offer to them the same chance for adventure, for the pursuit of new and interesting designs, that we have had." ― Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial
Our ability to solve problem is limited by our conception of what is feasible." ― Russell L. Ackoff, The Art of Problem Solving: Accompanied by Ackoff’s Fables
All through school, we are shown that making a mistake is a bad thing, something for which we are downgraded. This reveals how little conventional schools are interested in learning, because we never learn by doing something right; we already know how to do it. Doing it right does confirm what we already know, and this has some value, but it contributes nothing to learning.” ― Russell L. Ackoff, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track
Today, there are two worlds that use the word education with opposite meanings: One world consists of the schools and colleges (and even graduate schools) of our education complex, in which standardization prevails. In that world, an industrial training megastructure strives to turn out identical replicas of a product called “people educated for the twenty-first century.” The second is the world of information, knowledge, and wisdom, in which the real population of the world resides when not incarcerated in schools. In that world, learning takes place like it always did, and teaching consists of imparting one’s wisdom, among other things, to voluntary listeners." ― Russell L. Ackoff, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track
Contrary to the impression that the educational system promulgates, there are no absolute answers to questions; the correct answer to a question depends on the context in which it arises. For example, how much is 2 + 3? The answer depends on “two and three of what?” If we are speaking of 2 degrees Fahrenheit plus 3 degrees Celsius, the answer is different than if we are referring to the number of books on a table. How many students learn that 10 + 10 = 100 in a binary number system?" ― Russell L. Ackoff, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track
There are four different ways to treat problems: 1) Absolution, 2) Resolution, 3) Solution, and 4) Dissolution. These form a hierarchy of effectiveness, from least to most. They are seldom made accessible to students in school. Below the university level, only two are ever used. In some curricula at the university level, three are exposed. The fourth and most effective way is rarely dealt with in the educational system, except in training for professions in which design is the principal process involved." ― Russell L. Ackoff, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track
Reality consists of sets of interacting problems, systems of problems we call ‘messes.’ As previously noted, problems are abstractions extracted from reality by analysis. Therefore, education for practice should develop and apply methodology for dealing holistically with systems of problems. Because messes are complex, this requires an ability to cope with complexity. It is much easier to deal with complexity through design in practice—for example, in designing a skyscraper—than in dealing with it academically in a classroom or research facility. The theory of complexity is not required for dealing with complexity in practice; design can handle it." ― Russell L. Ackoff, Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track