In the process of continuous interdisciplinary learning, it is actually extremely easy to get lost. However, how did Simon, who has learned interdisciplinary and achieved outstanding achievements throughout his life, avoided getting lost? What secret weapon does he have?
Nobel laureate Herbert Simon (Herbert A. Simon) life two favorite metaphors, mazes and gardens, especially when writing his autobiography “All the mode of my life.”
He used the maze metaphor to describe scientific exploration, and wrote “Hugo: The Story of the Apple,” a simple understanding of the beauty of a scientific model ; he used the garden metaphor to describe life experience, and presented his life path crosswise, showing the surprises and surprises. The charm of the maze and garden to Simon is that they have no purpose.
The charm of the maze lies in exploration, and the fun of the garden lies in excursion. If there is really an “Ariadne line”, then the joy of thinking is lost.
Note: The line of Ariadne is derived from ancient Greek mythology. It is often used as a metaphor for the method and path to get out of the maze, and for clues to solve complex problems.
But all the wise men’s life is just to find that thin line, isn’t it?
Therefore, Simon used the “principle “ in the last chapter of “The Patterns of My Life “ to refer to “Ariadne’s Line” . It has helped Simon make a choice in the bifurcation of life and maintain the correct choice in the maze. It can also Provide an appropriate reason for your choice and explain it.
In short, this line can be used as a correct guide or as an excuse for error, so users often need to distinguish the wisdom of the former and acknowledge the wisdom of the latter.
Simon has a famous saying: One of the first rules of science is if somebody delivers a secret weapon to you, you better use it. In his autobiography, he also taught his students to use it this way: I advise my graduate students to have a secret weapon when choosing important topics. why? Because if this issue is really important, others will choose, then you have to master some knowledge or research methods that others don’t have to get first.
What you probably want to know most about this autobiography is the secret weapon of Simon’s life research. where is it? I think it’s in the last chapter, A Guide to Selection.
All human knowledge can be simply divided into two types:
The first is the worldview -how do you view the world; the
second is the methodology -how do you recognize, adapt and change the world.
Simon’s worldview can be reduced to two:
1) I ca n’t fully understand this world
2) I still want to know this world
How to explain it? In Simon’s words: As a limited rational being, I cannot understand the world completely and objectively. But I cannot ignore this world. I must do my best to understand it with the help of my scientific and philosophical partners and coordinate the relationship between the individual and the world. At the same time, the world can still provide me with the deepest source of happiness. Whether it’s outdoor at night, in the forest, or through a microscope, as long as I stare at it, I will find incredible changes, style and beauty, which are far beyond human artists.
Correspondingly, Simon’s methodology is:
1) Limited reason, rather than pursuit of satisfaction,
2) Use science to discover the hidden beauty of the world ;
Since the world is vast and human rationality is limited, “I must avoid perfect goals … I am an adaptive system. No matter what my goals are, my survival and success depend on being reasonably true to the environment around people and things Since my world image knowledge is approximately close to the real, I do n’t pursue perfection in everything, and at most I am satisfied with it.
The pursuit of the best will only waste valuable cognitive resources, and “the best” is the enemy of “good”. “
At the same time, the beauty of the world does not always appear externally, and hidden beauty requires the use of science to decode it. The hidden beauty of the world is the intrinsic motivation of Simon’s always engaged in science. He studied the works of past and present scientists, created new models through data, calculations, and laws, only for this most exciting experience.
The worldview and methodology are intertwined and weaved into a thread, strung the three brilliant beads of Simon’s life: reason, society and science.
Simon’s rational interest began with the decision-making behavior of people, and then extended to the decision-making behavior of the organization, always trying to find the optimal allocation of resources under uncertainty.
This process of searching is long and tortuous, and it keeps wandering through the various mazes: human decision-making behavior> budget decision-making> politics and economics> decision thinking> psychology> bounded rationality> computer science> artificial intelligence> human decision-making .
A few years later, when Simon reviewed the maze layout again, he was surprised, but also reasonable. Is this a coincidence, an interest, or a must for science? How to look at this coincidence? Simon explained:
“The need to solve problems and my passion for new tools have drawn me to a similar maze, allowing me to use my scientific life to pursue a core problem that I believe is an understanding of the state of man, and I can immerse myself in mathematics And the computer form system, for the latter, just the study itself brings me great happiness. “
Is this the right path? Simon’s meaning is that you might as well put the result in a long history, and you know that the success of the winner is not based on superb debates, not on the ability to confuse everyone, or on the influence of politics, but on gradually accumulated data And factual support.
Sun, moon and sky, rivers and rivers, finally see the true chapter.
Simon’s social outlook is cooperation and responsibility .
According to the theory of satisfaction, living in society is, of course, looking forward to sharing progress with society.
If you want society to help, you must take responsibility for making it better-including ensuring sustainable use of resources, inheriting interesting and useful cultures, protecting values and feelings that are worth protecting, and creating technologies that increase productivity .
Although each generation has limited reason, civilization is, after all, accumulated from generation to generation. Discovering the hidden beauty of the world requires science. Science is divided into disciplines due to limited rationality. This allows humans to simplify their goals and narrow the choice space to a calculable range, which includes the physical range and the knowledge range.
Therefore, this world always needs a class of people. He transcends national boundaries and interdisciplinary learning, brings new knowledge from one place to another, and is most likely to have surprising discoveries at the intersection of the maze layout.
Obviously, now that the Internet is so developed, you no longer have to travel around to gain new knowledge. What you need to do is to master more languages that can communicate with the world, whether it is English or programming, but it is important to interdisciplinary research and stand on the maze Meeting point.
If you also ask Simon, which meeting point of the maze territory represents the future? Simon might answer: computer science and cognitive science, because their intersection is artificial intelligence.
