“To achieve our highest goals, we must be willing to abandon them,” write SFI sabbatical visitor Ken Stanley and his colleague Joel Lehman in their new book, The Myth of the Objective. The researchers coined the term “Objective Paradox” to describe how trying to accomplish a particular thing can result in doing nothing at all.
Stanley will speak and sign copies of the book today, June 16, starting at 6:00 pm at Collected Works Bookstore (202 Galisteo Street) in downtown Santa Fe.
In the book, Stanley and Lehman place instances of the Objective Paradox into the greater context of modern culture, where goals, objectives, progress reports, and measurable outcomes drive and constrain most every aspect of our daily lives. They also note historical examples of innovation that arose serendipitously, wholly incidental from their discoverers' objectives or intent.
“The first computer would never have been built,” Stanley says, “if the goal had been to build a computer.”
The book gives readers a historical and scientific framework for understanding the nature of innovation. For those who feel constrained by educational standards, research objectives, or newsstand injunctions to achieve rock-hard abs, it can also serve as a therapeutic confirmation that there is, indeed, another path.
Click here to view the online event listing.
The Santa Fe Institute is a nonprofit research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its scientists collaborate across disciplines to understand the complex systems that underlie critical questions for science and humanity. The Institute is supported by philanthropic individuals and foundations, forward-thinking partner companies, and government science agencies.
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