𖧹/△ Fulcra

Unknown

Table of Contents

1. Page 2 - > Managers of systems are currently drowning in a sea of symbols spewed out by mature computer-based management information systems (MIS). More sophisti- cated computer-based knowledge systems are still young. Younger still are systems that generate understanding. Ones that generate wisdom have yet to be born
2. Page 2 - > Data are symbols that represent properties of objects, events and their environ- ments. They are products of observation.
3. Page 2 - > Information is contained in descriptions, answers to questions that begin with such words as who, what, where, when, and how many. Information systems generate, store, retrieve, and process data.
4. Page 2 - > About twenty years ago I identified five misassumptions all or some of which are incorporated in most computer-based management information systems.
5. Page 2 - > management’s most critical information need is for more relevant information. This is false: management’s most critical need is for less irrelevant information. A number of studies, including ones in which I have had a hand, have Russell Ackoff is founder and head of shown that most managers suffer from information overload and, as the overload INTERACT, the Institue for Interactive increases, the amount of information they use in making decisions actually de- Management, Philadelphia, having previously been Professor in the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. INTERACT is a consultancy and educational organisation. creases.
6. Page 2 - > filtration
7. Page 3 - > of irrelevant information and condensation of relevant information are the two information services most sorely needed by managers.
8. Page 3 - > Studies have shown that even good scientific writing can be reduced by two-thirds without loss of content, and that bad scientific writing can be reduced by one-hundred percent without loss of content.
9. Page 3 - > better a phenomenon is understood, the fewer variables are required to explain it. (Recall E = mc2). In another form this principle is: the less a phenomenon is understood, the more variables are required to explain it. Therefore, when most managers are asked what information they want, they say “everything”. When everything is provided to managers already suffering from information overload, the amount of information they use decreases.
10. Page 3 - > systems designers and operators, even those who understand their systems, do not understand management. Without such understanding they have no criteria for determining relevance and the degree of accuracy and reliability of information required by managers and therefore frequently provide them with misinformation. In effect, these designers and operators wind up managing manage. ment without either they or their managers being aware of it.
11. Page 3 - > Knowledge is know-how, for example, how a system works. It is what makes possible the transformation of information into instructions. I
12. Page 3 - > To control a system is to make it work efficiently. To increase efficiency is either to increase the probability of producing a desired outcome with fixed resources or to decrease the amount of resources required to produce it with a specified probability. Al
13. Page 3 - > Knowledge can be obtained in two ways: either by transmission from another who has it, by instruction, or by extracting it from experience. In either case the acquisition of knowledge is learning. W
14. Page 4 - > The ability to acquire knowledge on one’s own is intelligence. Unfortunately, many of the systems said to embody ‘artificial intelligence’ do not have this capability, hence are misnamed.
15. Page 4 - > Learning takes place when one’s efficiency increases over time or trials.
16. Page 4 - > Learning and adaptation may take place by trial and error or systematically by detection of error and its correction. Diagnosis is the identification of the cause of error and prescription is instruction directed at its correction. Systematic learning and adaptation require understanding error, knowing why it was made and how to correct it.
17. Page 4 - > Although machines have been used to explain error in the operations of machines, up to now they cannot be so used for purposeful biological and social systems. Therefore, manage- ment support systems that generate understanding require human participation. Such systems must be able to detect errors, determine their causes, and correct for them. I
18. Page 4 - > intelligence is the ability to increase efficiency; wisdom is the ability to increase effectiveness.
19. Page 4 - > Development is the process by which wisdom is increased. Therefore, a system that generates wisdom promotes development.
20. Page 4 - > Growth and development are not the same thing. Growth can take place with or without development, and development can take place with or without growth. A group of cells may grow without developing, and a person may develop without growing. Development is not a condition or state defined by what a person has. It is a process in which an individual increases his ability and desire to satisfy his own needs and legitimate desires, and those of others
21. Page 5 - > Social systems - societies, institutions, corporations, and other types of organiza- tion - are created by people to enable them to pursue their goals and objectives, and must function in four ways that were identified by ancient Greek philosophers: they must pursue truth, plenty, the good, and the beautiful.
22. Page 6 - > A different approach to ethics and morality is required. It is not based on conformity to rules of conduct, but on the way decisions are made, on process, not product. Put another way, I propose that a decision is ethical/moral because of characteristics not of what is done, but of how the decision to do it is made. Specification of an ethical/moral decision process must address two questions: ‘Who should be involved?’ and ‘How should they be involved?’
23. Page 6 - > The ‘process principles’ I propose are ideal, hence not attainable but capable of continuous approach. The first such principle is: All those who are directly affected by a decision (the decision’s stakeholders) should be involved in making that decision.
24. Page 7 - > The alternative to absolutistic ethics is relativistic or instrumental. It asserts that the good is what works. This reduces the good to the efficient a
25. Page 7 - > one cannot desire anything without desiring the ability to attain it. Therefore, the desire to increase one’s ability to obtain what one desires is universal, rationalistically - that is, tautologically - so because it derives from the nature of desire, not from what is desired. Therefore, the ability to satisfy any and every desire, omnicompetence, is an ideal because it can never be attained but it is capable of being approached without end. It is meta because its attainment implies the ability to attain any other ideal. Omnicompetence, then, is the ultimate good. Wisdom is the ability to evaluate any choice with respect to the amount of progress toward this meta-ideal that the choice makes possible. It is the ability to see the long- as well as the short-range consequences of any act and evaluate them relative to this ideal.
26. Page 7 - > The pursuit of beauty is directed at promoting the formulation of ideals, inspiring their pursuit, and providing rewards for engaging in that pursuit.
27. Page 7 - > contrast to Plato, Aristotle conceptualized art as cathartic, a palliative for dissatisfaction, hence a producer of stability and contentment. He saw art as something from which one extracts satisfaction here and now. Where Plato saw art as creative, Aristotle saw it as recreative. These apparently contradictory views of art are actually complementary: they are concerned with two aspects of the same thing. Recreation is the extraction of satisfaction from what we do regardless of what we do it for, its intrinsic value. It provides ’the pause that refreshes’, thereby recreating the creator. We could not maintain continuous pursuit of ideals, which we can never attain, without payoffs along the way. Art also inspires us to further progressive efforts. It’s what makes what we do meaningful, possessed of extrinsic value.
28. Page 8 - > information, knowledge and understanding all focus on efficiency. Wisdom adds value, which requires the mental function we call judge- ment. Evaluations of efficiency all are based on a logic which, in principle, can be specified, and therefore can be programmed and automated. These principles are general and impersonal. We can speak of the efficiency of an act independent of the actor. Not so for judgment. The value of an act is never independent of the actor, and seldom is the same for two actors even when they act in the same way. Efficiency is inferrable from appropriate grounds; ethical and aesthetic values are not. They are unique and personal. At least this is how it seems to me. From all this I infer that wisdom-generating systems are ones that man will never be able to assign to automata.
29. Page 8 - > It may well be that wisdom, which is essential to the effective pursuit of ideals, and the pursuit of ideals itself, are the characteristics that differentiate man from machines.

- > Wisdom is located at the top of a hierarchy of types, types of content of the human mind. Descending from wisdom there are understanding, knowledge, information, and, at the bottom, data. Each of these includes the categories that fall below it - for example, there can be no wisdom without understanding and no understanding without knowledge. Nevertheless, it is my impression that on the average about forty percent of the content of human minds consists of data, thirty percent information, twenty percent knowledge, ten percent understanding, and virtually no wisdom. This allocation of mental space is particularly well reflected in the minds of our political leaders and those who educate them.

Page 2 - > Managers of systems are currently drowning in a sea of symbols spewed out by mature computer-based management information systems (MIS). More sophisti- cated computer-based knowledge systems are still young. Younger still are systems that generate understanding. Ones that generate wisdom have yet to be born

Page 2 - > Data are symbols that represent properties of objects, events and their environ- ments. They are products of observation.

Page 2 - > Information is contained in descriptions, answers to questions that begin with such words as who, what, where, when, and how many. Information systems generate, store, retrieve, and process data.

Page 2 - > About twenty years ago I identified five misassumptions all or some of which are incorporated in most computer-based management information systems.

Page 2 - > management’s most critical information need is for more relevant information. This is false: management’s most critical need is for less irrelevant information. A number of studies, including ones in which I have had a hand, have Russell Ackoff is founder and head of shown that most managers suffer from information overload and, as the overload INTERACT, the Institue for Interactive increases, the amount of information they use in making decisions actually de- Management, Philadelphia, having previously been Professor in the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. INTERACT is a consultancy and educational organisation. creases.

Page 2 - > filtration

Page 3 - > of irrelevant information and condensation of relevant information are the two information services most sorely needed by managers.

Page 3 - > Studies have shown that even good scientific writing can be reduced by two-thirds without loss of content, and that bad scientific writing can be reduced by one-hundred percent without loss of content.

Page 3 - > better a phenomenon is understood, the fewer variables are required to explain it. (Recall E = mc2). In another form this principle is: the less a phenomenon is understood, the more variables are required to explain it. Therefore, when most managers are asked what information they want, they say “everything”. When everything is provided to managers already suffering from information overload, the amount of information they use decreases.

“The amount of information they use decreases…” Is this relative, though? Or are they simply more likely to ignore evidence entirely and make decisions based on biases/heuristics?

Page 3 - > systems designers and operators, even those who understand their systems, do not understand management. Without such understanding they have no criteria for determining relevance and the degree of accuracy and reliability of information required by managers and therefore frequently provide them with misinformation. In effect, these designers and operators wind up managing manage. ment without either they or their managers being aware of it.

Page 3 - > Knowledge is know-how, for example, how a system works. It is what makes possible the transformation of information into instructions. I

Page 3 - > To control a system is to make it work efficiently. To increase efficiency is either to increase the probability of producing a desired outcome with fixed resources or to decrease the amount of resources required to produce it with a specified probability. Al

Page 3 - > Knowledge can be obtained in two ways: either by transmission from another who has it, by instruction, or by extracting it from experience. In either case the acquisition of knowledge is learning. W

Page 4 - > The ability to acquire knowledge on one’s own is intelligence. Unfortunately, many of the systems said to embody ‘artificial intelligence’ do not have this capability, hence are misnamed.

Page 4 - > Learning takes place when one’s efficiency increases over time or trials.

Page 4 - > Learning and adaptation may take place by trial and error or systematically by detection of error and its correction. Diagnosis is the identification of the cause of error and prescription is instruction directed at its correction. Systematic learning and adaptation require understanding error, knowing why it was made and how to correct it.

Page 4 - > intelligence is the ability to increase efficiency; wisdom is the ability to increase effectiveness.

Page 4 - > Development is the process by which wisdom is increased. Therefore, a system that generates wisdom promotes development.

Page 4 - > Growth and development are not the same thing. Growth can take place with or without development, and development can take place with or without growth. A group of cells may grow without developing, and a person may develop without growing. Development is not a condition or state defined by what a person has. It is a process in which an individual increases his ability and desire to satisfy his own needs and legitimate desires, and those of others

Similar to Gharajedaghi

Page 6 - > A different approach to ethics and morality is required. It is not based on conformity to rules of conduct, but on the way decisions are made, on process, not product. Put another way, I propose that a decision is ethical/moral because of characteristics not of what is done, but of how the decision to do it is made. Specification of an ethical/moral decision process must address two questions: ‘Who should be involved?’ and ‘How should they be involved?’

Page 6 - > The ‘process principles’ I propose are ideal, hence not attainable but capable of continuous approach. The first such principle is: All those who are directly affected by a decision (the decision’s stakeholders) should be involved in making that decision.

Page 7 - > The alternative to absolutistic ethics is relativistic or instrumental. It asserts that the good is what works. This reduces the good to the efficient a

Interesting commentary on act utilitarianism

Page 7 - > one cannot desire anything without desiring the ability to attain it. Therefore, the desire to increase one’s ability to obtain what one desires is universal, rationalistically - that is, tautologically - so because it derives from the nature of desire, not from what is desired. Therefore, the ability to satisfy any and every desire, omnicompetence, is an ideal because it can never be attained but it is capable of being approached without end. It is meta because its attainment implies the ability to attain any other ideal. Omnicompetence, then, is the ultimate good. Wisdom is the ability to evaluate any choice with respect to the amount of progress toward this meta-ideal that the choice makes possible. It is the ability to see the long- as well as the short-range consequences of any act and evaluate them relative to this ideal.

Page 7 - > The pursuit of beauty is directed at promoting the formulation of ideals, inspiring their pursuit, and providing rewards for engaging in that pursuit.

Page 7 - > contrast to Plato, Aristotle conceptualized art as cathartic, a palliative for dissatisfaction, hence a producer of stability and contentment. He saw art as something from which one extracts satisfaction here and now. Where Plato saw art as creative, Aristotle saw it as recreative. These apparently contradictory views of art are actually complementary: they are concerned with two aspects of the same thing. Recreation is the extraction of satisfaction from what we do regardless of what we do it for, its intrinsic value. It provides ’the pause that refreshes’, thereby recreating the creator. We could not maintain continuous pursuit of ideals, which we can never attain, without payoffs along the way. Art also inspires us to further progressive efforts. It’s what makes what we do meaningful, possessed of extrinsic value.

Page 8 - > information, knowledge and understanding all focus on efficiency. Wisdom adds value, which requires the mental function we call judge- ment. Evaluations of efficiency all are based on a logic which, in principle, can be specified, and therefore can be programmed and automated. These principles are general and impersonal. We can speak of the efficiency of an act independent of the actor. Not so for judgment. The value of an act is never independent of the actor, and seldom is the same for two actors even when they act in the same way. Efficiency is inferrable from appropriate grounds; ethical and aesthetic values are not. They are unique and personal. At least this is how it seems to me. From all this I infer that wisdom-generating systems are ones that man will never be able to assign to automata.

Page 8 - > It may well be that wisdom, which is essential to the effective pursuit of ideals, and the pursuit of ideals itself, are the characteristics that differentiate man from machines.