A few hours after my last post, which ended with a claim that some form of consumer action could achieve changes in the culture that could not be driven from the top, I read a piece that points to a case that supports my point. Umair Haque, in his usual iconoclastic manner, wrote about a recent action that drove the Parliament to rein in the bonuses of bank executives. It certainly was not the US. Indulge me for a paragraph, if you will. Imagine that there was a country in which bailed-out bankers announced extravagant bonuses. OK, that part’s eminently… Read More
Continue ReadingBack to Basics: Wicked Problems (Property 6)
Today’s property from Rittel and Webber follows from the earliest items in the list. **6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan.** Sophisticated problem-solving algorithms and programs (linear programming, for example) that are used in operations research or decision science will not work. R & W write: There are no criteria which enable one to prove that all solutions to a wicked problem have been identified and considered. . . Chess has a finite set of… Read More
Continue ReadingBeen Away, But Returning Today
I’ve been moving up to Maine, doing computer maintenance, and have been unable to attend to the blog, but I am settled and will continue again. If the Apocalypse came, I missed it. If it did, Heaven looks a lot like Earth.
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