October 2016
Layers
12/10/16 19:13
The further away you are from the actual situation, the less you really know about it.
When working with databases, I had the realization that the more transitions and translations that your data went through, the less accurate it was likely to be.
I’ve found similar occurrences in other areas as well. It is the “whisper down the lane” phenomena. The more people between the messenger and the recipient, the more likely it is to get scrambled or lost.
Friedrich Hayek thought centrally planning would always fail because by the time the knowledge finally got to the planners, it was too diluted/dispersed to make an accurate assessment of the situation.
I’ve seen it again in engineering, when I was trying to amplify a signal that was coming from one device so it could be used by another. During the transition, the surrounding electrical noise would also get amplified and the original signal would get altered unintentionally.
Layers of course can be good. Multiple lines of defense are always recommended. Sometimes a mediator can actually help the discussion between two sides. The best way to deal with the cold is dressing in layers. But if you really want to understand something, you need to peel back the layers and get to the core.
When working with databases, I had the realization that the more transitions and translations that your data went through, the less accurate it was likely to be.
I’ve found similar occurrences in other areas as well. It is the “whisper down the lane” phenomena. The more people between the messenger and the recipient, the more likely it is to get scrambled or lost.
Friedrich Hayek thought centrally planning would always fail because by the time the knowledge finally got to the planners, it was too diluted/dispersed to make an accurate assessment of the situation.
I’ve seen it again in engineering, when I was trying to amplify a signal that was coming from one device so it could be used by another. During the transition, the surrounding electrical noise would also get amplified and the original signal would get altered unintentionally.
Layers of course can be good. Multiple lines of defense are always recommended. Sometimes a mediator can actually help the discussion between two sides. The best way to deal with the cold is dressing in layers. But if you really want to understand something, you need to peel back the layers and get to the core.
