British adman and thinker Rory Sutherland says businesspeople, governments, and politicians aren’t looking to solve problems; they’re looking to win arguments. It’s been a disaster for useful innovation. “We try to close down the solution space of any problem in order to arrive at a single right answer that is difficult to argue with. What would’ve happened if you hadn’t given the brief for a high-speed train to a load of engineering firms who immediately focused on speed, time, distance, capacity? What if you’d given the brief to Disney instead?”
This and more in Vernacular NICELY SAID issue 41.
- Desk danger – Move for your mind
- Innovation – Doomed by arguments
- Small trades – People and their tools of trade
- Pro tennis – Lonely
- AI – Mental slop tax
- Business – Noodle empire