Finally someone stood up and said what I was feeling all my live! Tim Harford is an expert on complex systems and realized that most of them evolve by trial and error and not by some authority saying we have to do it in this and that way. He points out that this seems to be obviouse but that he hasn’t yet met the politician running to be elected saying:

“I want to fix the health system. I want to fix our education system. I have no idea how to do it. I have half a dozen ideas. We try them out. They will probably all fail. Then we test some other ideas out. Will find some that work. We get rid of those that don’t“

Tim points out that not only he hasn’t met the politician yet but our behaviour is also not like this. He says:

“But more importantly when voters like you an me are willing to vote for that kind of a politian on that platform I will admit that it is obvious that trial and error works…“

The only thing that borders me about this talk is that it had to be an authority like Tim Harfords on an event with a lot of authority like TED to say these words and get heard. Anyway enjoy the following TED talk by Tim Harford

I think trial and error is a very important way to be creative and find smart solutions. I think especially in science as well as R&D a lot of results come from trial and error. Most people just don’t admit it. We should think about our perspective on trial and error and make this behaviour more acceptable within our society.
Tell me what great ideas did you get through trial and error?