[teampractices] On the importance of deep knowledge to getting work done

Fri Aug 12 21:30:10 UTC 2016

>
> Shipment information sent to FedEx.
>
> FedEx processing shipment information.
>
> Like, processing it mentally.
>
> FedEx is having an existential crisis about shipping information:
>
> What is the nature of packages?
>
> What is the meaning of one person sending a package to another person?
>
> C.E.O. of FedEx issued order that all employees read Marcel Mauss’s essay
> “The Gift,” about the sociology of gift-giving, to better understand the
> thoughts of FedEx customers when they send and receive packages.
>
> Discussion group took place with all hundred and sixty-five thousand FedEx
> workers about the essay.
>
> Each employee presented thoughts on the text.
>
> Conclusion reached that an open dialogue should continue about packages.
> And a second reading about gifts, by Jacques Derrida, was assigned for next
> week.
>
> Package picked up by FedEx with a feeling of purpose.
>
...
>
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/01/updates-
from-your-fedex-package-by-colin-stokes

But on the other hand:

> Tom Knight and the Lisp Machine
>
> A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off
> and on.
>
> Knight, seeing what the student was doing, spoke sternly: “You cannot fix
> a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going
> wrong.”
>
> Knight turned the machine off and on.
>
> The machine worked.
>
http://catb.org/jargon/html/koans.html

*-- Joel Aufrecht*
Team Practices Group
Wikimedia Foundation
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