Friday, 30 November 2012
Book Review: Arbesman - The Half Life of Facts: why everything we know has an expiration date
I don't why I never thought of knowledge as decaying over time. Especially when knowledge acquisition and transfer / spread is my specialist topic. Arbesman provides excellent examples and a logical argument to support his hypothesis that facts die out at a predictable rate. This is a fascinating thoguht, especially as in healthcare we believe that we constantly press against "old" facts which are stuck in the system. A reframing to think about what their "half-life" might be, is a useful and inspiring one.
Arbesman has come up with new vignettes rather than trotting out the old favourites. This is not a new take on an old subject, but rather a new subject requiring some disconfirming thinking.
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