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COBIT® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association and the IT Governance Institute.
Microsoft® is a Registered Trade Mark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
CMM® is a Registered Trade Mark of Carnegie Mellon University.
ISO® is a Registered Trade Mark of the International Organisation for Standardisation.
© Copyright 2006-2008 Two Hills Ltd www.twohills.co.nz. All rights reserved
Permission is required to reproduce this content in any form. Brief extracts may be used without permission if attributed with a link to this site. RSS feeds may be used without permission. Permission is granted for anyone to link to this site.
By accessing or viewing this site, you are deemed to have agreed to the terms and conditions.
The contents of this site are unmoderated submissions from authenticated and unauthenticated users. As such they cannot and do not represent the views of Two Hills Ltd.
This site is developed, maintained and hosted by Two Hills Ltd
Made in New Zealand
Comments
Interesting Review
An interesting review, Skeptic. It caused me to step back and reflect upon other professions.
What is to be thought of doctors, for example, whose annual reading is at best made up of two or three formulaic thrillers? Who, by virtue of their profession's class system, are increasingly rewarded as their knowledge of medicine narrows.
Or what do we make of the banker, called upon to make real decisions in a time of instability and inflation, who has never heard of John Law or has endeavored to forget who he was or what he did?
Or the economist who thinks even less of railway bubbles and the crash of 1880. What does it mean when he talks seriously of the catastrophe which awaits if debts are forgiven, given he doesn't know that the entire civilation of Athens - upon which we still model western civilization - was created through Solon's wiping out of all crippling loans. Or indeed that America's economic strength in the 20th century was in part the result of constant financial defaultings during the 19th century.
What do we think of the professor of English who views fiction as an exercise separate from society? Rendering literature inaccessible except to the most intimately initiated. And in the process, who becomes himself incapable of understanding the movements of the outer world?
I'd say therein lies the tragedy.
Voltaire used to ridicule the elite of his day by pointing out -- through well-placed scepticism, of course -- they were pitifully ignorant. They simply bought knowledge and advice. The elite's ignorance was so profound that it made them incapable of leading.
Voltaire was not arguing that in order to lead you must be a Renaissance man. But there was a need for general and in-depth knowledge in some direction. And on that foundation there was a need to be interested in the ideas and creations of one's time. To read, to think, to ask questions, and to talk in wide circles, well beyond any particular competence.
The technocrats of our day make the old seem profound and civilized by comparison.
Warm regards,
Dool
narrow un-contexted views
Your post is apposite to the one I was writing at the same time
doctors
Dool, this is not ITIL specific but your comments/comparison using doctors is very ill informed. In order for a Doctor to remain a specialist he/she is required to attend conferences, read publications, publish etc. Also while specialising in a specific field they do narrow the scope of their knowledge but are increasing the depth of it in their chosen field. To specialise means to get very good in a certain area because it is impossible in a working lifetime of a person to be good at everything. I don't understand why the public loves to criticise doctors - Doctors are probably paid less than you while actually doing something useful - like helping sick people feel better.
Its lawyers not doctors
Dool
Your comments make about as much sense to an ignoramus such as me as the Service Strategy book will make to the ITIl fanzine. thank you once again for endorsing the Skeptics point - while trying to shoot it down. Sometimes a degree of ignorance is worth a pound of sense when trying to get to the nub of an issue. The 5 whys are proof of that concept.
Oops I forgot to make the lawyer point....
I was distracted ... its lawyers that draw the ire of mere mortals not doctors. Lawyers will adopt any perspective to make a buck - for or against the point being discussed. they 'interpret' the law as it best suits their side of the case. Doctors have a professional code "preserve life". Lawyers have a variable code that they can adapt to the current situation. ITIL V3 has turned us all into lawyers - it lacks the specific promised guidance touted by many of those who are close to the core and loud during the may 30 launch. Now they, like all of us, need to turn to our doctor code to help folks diagnose the problem and find a remedy that is in the best interest of the customer.
Just a few Voltairisms to even your quote up:
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
What do we say of the service management professional who know nothing but ITIL.....
Voltaire's Bastards
Coming from a family of doctors, perhaps I presume to know at least a little about doctors and the medical profession - and some context. For example and to my earlier point:
Doctors were once at the centre of political, social and cultural change. Today, a doctor tends to reach his summit when his view of the human body consciously limits itself to a single organ. They've become technocrats. His is an abstract profession involving narrower and narrower bands of knowledge.
This is precisely what John Saul called "Voltaire's Bastards." Those who hold the absolute belief that the solution to our problems must be a more determined application of rationally organized expertise - ignoring or even disdaining the greater context.
The reality is, as Voltaire pointed out, is that our problems are largely the product of that application.
I hold no derision towards doctors. This is not a commentary on the profession as it is an observation to what Saul described as, "the West's love affair with the ideology of pure reason has made us crippingly dependent on process-minded experts who rational systems are bereft of both meaning and morality."
We are way off topic so I'll move on.
off topic on this blog?
Pardon? "the West's love affair with the ideology of pure reason has made us crippingly dependent on process-minded experts who rational systems are bereft of both meaning and morality" is off topic on this blog? Bang on target I'd say and nicely complementary to Shelley Gare's quote "Anything that can't be put into numerical form is somehow regarded as immaterial or ephemeral, even though we should all know that the most important things in life can never be measured."