[APWG] re what we know

[Wayne Tyson]

TH, RLB, and APWG:

Yes, but I should plug in another too sense concerning what I have called "the virgin effect." That is, I have seen cases again and again where someone utterly new to the question comes up with an insight that those of us who should have known, were we actually as "wise" as we thought. The problem arises from a phenomenon with which I have been infected that I call "the myopia of proximity." The closer one gets, or the more familiar one becomes, the less one sees, especially away from the statistical mean. I don't mean to be mean, but dag-nabbit, presumption is EVIL. 

So I want to ENCOURAGE so-called "non-" professionals to join with us and speak up. (And, I want all the god-like narcissistic types to leave the nonprofessionals alone--ESPECIALLY STUDENTS!). Students are actually afraid to ask question, pose issues, or participate in discussions for fear that some "advisor" or person on their committee, will get wind of it, or a whole school of nasty, competitive little piranhas will nit-pick them to pieces and spread them all over the so-called "social" media or worse. Such people need to know that there are those of us who will not think ill of them for "being wrong" (I am wrong many times per day), and we have to help them survive the nasty gauntlet called "education" in any way we can. 

On the other hand, one mustn't forget the details, even (especially?) the microscopic ones, even the sub-microscopic. 

Ignorance is the portal to discovery. 

WT
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ty Harrison 
  To: Wayne Tyson ; Robert Layton Beyfuss ; apwg at lists.plantconservation.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 1:07 PM
  Subject: Re: [APWG] re what we know


  Regarding Wayne Tyson's plea for, dare I say, "ecological wisdom", I whole heartedly agree.  I have found that to truely understand the functioning of any local ecological system you need to live in it and study it carefully for 10 to 15 years and have the broad background (knowledge) about what organisms are there (seen and unseen), and how they interact between them selves and their abiotic environment.  This wisdom does not come cheaply, and should alway be accompanied by a big dose of humility about the things we still do not understand.  Ty Harrison
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Wayne Tyson 
    To: Robert Layton Beyfuss ; apwg at lists.plantconservation.org 
    Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 12:00 AM
    Subject: Re: [APWG] re what we know


    RLB and all:

    Einstein also is credited with saying something to the effect that everything should be [made] as simple as possible, but no simpler. 

    The way I think about this subject is that knowledge is no substitute for understanding. In other words, just knowing something does not mean that one understands it, therefore "the pursuit of knowledge" should be "the pursuit of understanding." I like a statement I heard some time ago but don't remember the author: "If you can't explain it to your (grandmother, neighbor) you don't know enough about it--in other words understanding can't be "transferred" like knowledge can; it must be gained by a long personal involvement with the subject. Even then, certain knowledge is the kiss of death to the intellect. Everybody must "get theirs" the hard way, from the bottom up. 

    WT

    PS: "The most important thing to know is what you don't know." --Margaret Mead

    "The worst kinda ignerance ain't s' much not knowin' as 'tis knowin' s' much that ain't so." --Henry Wheeler Shaw
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Robert Layton Beyfuss 
      To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org 
      Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 11:47 AM
      Subject: [APWG] re what we know


      "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination" - Albert Einstein
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