Thanks to those who have contributed to this discussion on long-term memory.
Quite rightly, it is argued, that in the interests of innovation it is often
best to forget what you know, since it stops you t hinking outside of the
box. I saw a classic case of this several years ago, where a well known
engineering company had a huge slate based flat plotter where the flatbed
moved under a gantry holding the plotter pen, rather than the other way
round, It gave significant accuracy and stability advantages. When I asked
why they hadn't designed it like other plotters - they answered "what other
plotters?". They didn't know and came up with something novel.
Today I suppose a modern analogy is a aircraft without wings. Who a few
years ago would have though about designing an aricraft without wings, but
several are now on the drawing board if not flying.
There is some knowledge, where because of the longevity of the product you
cannot afford (for environmental, safety and a host of other reasons) to
lose the knowledge that went into a product. Decommissioning old nuclear
power stations is one. This is what prompted my original questions, which were
1. Are there other extreme examples?
2. What can we learn from history about 'lost knowledge'
3. Any practical ideas to capture this knowledge before it is too late?
David J. Skyrme
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David J. Skyrme Tel/Fax: +44 1635 551434
David Skyrme Associates Limited Newbury, Berks, England
a member of the ENTOVATION Network
Spring Newsletter - Knowledge Management, Web Guidelines etc.
at http://www.hiway.co.uk/skyrme/index.htm
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--david@pop3.hiway.co.uk (David J. Skyrme)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>