Problem solver or researcher perspective

Of hierarchy as an opening into network

pov-researcher.png

Same lensed-network diagram, with one black-perspective lens, the four blue lenses from the first diagram, and two additional yellow lenses labeled "posit". The network has changed from the first diagram by adding yellow connections to the connectome.

A person problem-solving or researching will consider what has already been folded into a hierarchically-delineated paradigm. When paradigm-knowns don’t solve the issue or explain what’s going on, they’ll expand first along the ‘unattached’ (to the hierarchy they are currently using) but networked data. Eventually they will even consider information that is not included in the hierarchy / paradigm to get what they are looking for.

A researcher tends to see data that is not directly attached to an existing understanding as potential threads to pull on to solve their issue or answer their question. They’ll even deliberately skew away from existing paradigms in order to get fresh eyes on how the data may hang together.

No data is junk; it’s just not contextualized and meaningful yet. Where a user is happy to limit their view to get their job done faster, a researcher is looking to solve. They are more likely to be comfortable making sense of as-yet-unattached data in their efforts to solve.

I am personally suspect of any researcher/innovator calling data ‘junk’ in their area of expertise. It’s a glaring signal that they are leveraging confirmation bias.

My long-term synthesis and understanding. It is heavily influenced by the concept of consilience and observations of scientific researchers in the weeds.

perspective research:
cognitive bias, context, excluded, heirarchy, meaning