Simptortion: Starting Tomorrow, Today Will Be Yesterday
Learn from history, but do not theorize on it. History offers plenty of examples of what not to do and some examples of what to do. It is best, to be sure of what is wrong and skeptical of what is (or seems) right, true or convention. Many theories, hypothesis and explanations based on historical events are aesthetically pleasing but precarious when put into practice. This is because the developers of these presume they actually know the what and how of the historical event(s) for which they are theorizing. Events of the past are easy to fit into a convenient, plausible narrative once they have happened, which makes them easy to understand and categorize, by reducing thousands, and possibly millions, of influences to several, vivid actions and outcomes. What these historical narratives lack, and why they are so dangerous to theorize on, is the context and the minutiae of the time in which they took place and the intricacies of what did not happen. Every sliver of history has unique attributes that are applicable only to themselves. That is, known historical events are amalgamations of other events coinciding at a point in time. It is impossible for contemporaneous participants to know all the individual events that coagulated in time (and space) to create an event. This is evident that most participants in historical events rarely know they are participating in an historical event at the time it happened, or the full reasons why it is happening.
Known history for what it is; past events or proceedings that resulted from thousands of prior non-linear, asymmetric events. Attempts to extrapolate "best practice" or actionable models from perceived past successes is an act of "simptortion" (a word I coined to describe simplification's distortion of reality).
Simptortion: the distortion of data, information and knowledge through simplification (forcing linear categories, ignoring complexity and asymmetry)
NOTE: the word "simptortion" is itself simptortion.
Originally published February 10, 2008