Re: Quotes and Knowledge

[Rip Stauffer <ripstaur@vabch.com>]

I love this! I read this story when I was in my teens. I am so glad to
be reminded of it...

David Kerridge mentioned:

"The similarities with Deming are stronger than appears at first sight.
Not all
new theories met with such resistance. Why so much in this case? These
are
my guesses, having studied the story.

1)   The evidence was statistical.

2)   The explanation he put forward involved an *invisible* means of
transmitting
       disease. The old theories, such as bad smells, were tangible,
even though
       not visible.

3)   Semmelweiss blamed the doctors themselves as the main agent of
spreading
       illness."

I would add one other aspect to these. As if it were not bad enough that
Semmelweiss blamed the doctors themselves, he had the temerity to blame
the high infection rate on the habit that surgeons of the time had of
wearing the same smocks day in and day out. These smocks were covered in
pus and blood, and were badges of honor indicating experience. The
nastier your smock, the more eminent you must be. Suggesting to a
surgeon of the day that he might have to wear a clean smock or wash the
detritus from your hands before performing a C-section was akin to
telling business leaders that they needed to eliminate performance
evaluations and competition between their managers. It was heresy, and
nothing less.

A more recent example of this same problem came recently. Unfortunately,
I don't have the name handy, but a researcher several years ago found a
bacterium that caused ulcers. As I understand the story, it took several
years for this research to be accepted, because the researcher was not a
gastroenterologist, and because gastroenterologists *knew* that bacteria
could not survive in the stomach.

Rip Stauffer
BlueFire Partners
612-344-1027
rstauffer@bluefirepartners.com

[Moderator's Note:  Tangentially related trivia...  the rotary telephone
switching device that automated telephone calling was invented by a
mortician, not a telephone engineer...  We *all* have some form of lens
through which we see and interpret the world.
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