Post by Steven Dale
When I was a child I had a marvelous theory about thunder storms:
Rain was held by clouds and thunder often accompanied rain.
Thunder sounded like a loud explosion and explosions destroyed things.
And since after it rained, no clouds could be seen, then thunder must be the sound of clouds exploding!
In my mind, I had come to an entirely wonderful and reasonable model of how a natural process worked. I called it my Theory of Thunder.
My mother, with more important things on her mind – God bless her – informed me that I was correct. You can imagine how well my Theory of Thunder held up against grade 4 science and a few things called condensation, evaporation and electro-static electricity.
Many planners are taught to utilize a method of decision-making (mundanely) called the Rational Comprehensive Model. Like my Theory of Thunder, it is a wonderful and reasonable model that suffers only from being entirely worthless.
Calling it the Rational Comprehensive Model does not make it rational nor comprehensive. I suppose it’s still a model but only insofar as my Theory of Thunder was.
Models are often – and sometimes frequently – wrong. And when you rely on things like the Rational Comprehensive Model you only lull yourself into complacently thinking that in your work you are, indeed, being rational and comprehensive when you’re not.
You may attempt to be rational and comprehensive, but ego, incentive and lack of time and resources will trip you up every time.
(Even worse, are those that pay lip-service to rationality and comprehensiveness, when they know full well they’re up to neither. Like Upton Sinclair once said: It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!)
So why not just admit that? Why pretend to hold yourself up to an unattainable ideal?
Why not just say: “We’re doing our best, and because we know we’re not rational and not comprehensive, we’re going to do everything in our power to get you as close as we can to it.”
Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
