Tracy, I wish more writers would do what you did in your first paragraph and be open about where they are mentally - I might even prefer to read someone who is struggling to understand a topic or the world or some particular situation than someone who believes they have mastered it. I think the best writers take you along on that journey with them.
Your comment about not leaving everything to experts reminds me of the justification that civilian, Anglophone, military historians and strategists developed after the First World War - war is too important to leave to generals and admirals.
These days I am struck by the narrowness of many of the so-called experts. Failure to understand or ignore larger contexts is too often a symptom of today's experts. There are always exceptions, but maybe not enough of them.
c/o @Stephen Greenleaf (I think), I just read https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/schemas-and-the-political-brain, and older post from @Brian Klass at Garden of Forking Paths. The schemas he talks about, into which we fit data as it comes in, may be close to the techne I mention. Although... I try to be very conscious of, and very deliberate about, which techne I choose to think by. I also like to work with several at a time. I really do find "mashups" fruitful.
Tracy, I wish more writers would do what you did in your first paragraph and be open about where they are mentally - I might even prefer to read someone who is struggling to understand a topic or the world or some particular situation than someone who believes they have mastered it. I think the best writers take you along on that journey with them.
Your comment about not leaving everything to experts reminds me of the justification that civilian, Anglophone, military historians and strategists developed after the First World War - war is too important to leave to generals and admirals.
These days I am struck by the narrowness of many of the so-called experts. Failure to understand or ignore larger contexts is too often a symptom of today's experts. There are always exceptions, but maybe not enough of them.
c/o @Stephen Greenleaf (I think), I just read https://www.forkingpaths.co/p/schemas-and-the-political-brain, and older post from @Brian Klass at Garden of Forking Paths. The schemas he talks about, into which we fit data as it comes in, may be close to the techne I mention. Although... I try to be very conscious of, and very deliberate about, which techne I choose to think by. I also like to work with several at a time. I really do find "mashups" fruitful.