October 28, 2005
When creative ignorance trumps arrogance.
Physicians (and possibly other scientists) always think they are right. They are trained that way. They will often defend unto death positions they thought were right even when they are wrong.
On the one hand, if you are a patient, this can be OK. I mean, you wouldn't want your physician constantly thinking he or she is wrong, especially after the prescription is given.
On the other hand, it does preclude collaboration and innovation and tends to value prior knowledge whether right or wrong as superior to new knowledge.
This predicament plays itself out in the research arena. State of the art understanding tends to impede innovation. But this can be overcome by either ignorance that you “can't” do something or dogged persistence in something that doesn't fit but nevertheless seems right.
Two recent stories seem to illustrate this nicely.
The story of the insurance guys from Metairie, Louisiana caught my fancy. In a story in the October 19 Wall Street Journal , Lee Gomes describes how some amateurs were competitive in the recent robotic car competition. Here's the line:
“The Darpa Grand Challenge desert race earlier this month marked the first time that computer-controlled vehicles were able to navigate such a long (132 mile) and difficult course. Darpa, a Pentagon technology agency, sponsored the event to spur the development of battlefield robotic vehicles, though there are many who say such vehicles are still a long way off.”
“The winner was a Volkswagen from Stanford University, which finished in just under seven hours.”
“In an unheralded fourth place, though -- just 37 minutes behind the winner -- was an entrant from Gray Insurance, a small, family-owned casualty company in Metairie. Fourth place may not sound like any big whoop until you realize that the Gray Team finished ahead of cars from some of America's most elite technical universities, as well as from a number of big defense contractors. In fact, theirs was one of only five vehicles that managed to even cross the finish line.”
“The Gray Team had no prior experience in elite fields like robotics or artificial intelligence, spending their days instead in humdrum corporate data-processing tasks. They didn't decide to get involved in the race until 10 months ago, and didn't take delivery of the car they used until April.”
The Gray Team didn't really “know” they couldn't do this. They just read a lot of books, got some volunteer help, and improvised components that just seemed to make sense. It was a stunning performance. The comment attributed to the Stanford team was excellent: Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford professor whose team was victorious, says he couldn't explain exactly how the Gray Team had managed to do so well because it never occurred to him before the race to check out the team. But Mr. Gray summarized it most effectively by saying, “It's a beautiful thing when people are ignorant that something is impossible."
The second illustration of ignorant creativity occurred with this year's Nobel Prize in medicine. "A 'Preposterous' Nobel," an October 4 editorial in the Wall Street Journal said it nicely:
“Time was when our best medical minds thought peptic ulcers were a 'lifestyle disease,' the result of too much stress, too much spicy food, or some combination thereof. For treatment, doctorly prescriptions included time off work, chewing your food thoroughly, popping antacids and drinking quantities of milk. In severe cases, patients went under the knife to have their stomach linings removed.” (Doesn't all this sound silly now?)
“So it is not altogether surprising that when Australian physician Barry Marshall suggested, at a Brussels conference in 1983, that peptic ulcers might have a bacterial cause, his findings were dismissed by colleagues as "the most preposterous thing ever heard," according to his entry in the Current Biography Yearbook.”
“Far from being deterred, however, Dr. Marshall pursued his line of inquiry into a bacterium named Helicobacter pylori, which had been discovered by his Australian collaborator Robin Warren and which seemed to be closely associated with gastric inflammation. Dr. Marshall even went so far as to make himself a research guinea pig by drinking a microbial stew, which caused him to become ill but which further confirmed the validity of their hypothesis.”
“Today, the milk-and-rest cure is a thing of the past, surgeries are rare, and a disease that affects some four million Americans annually can usually be treated successfully within a few weeks with an antibiotic cocktail. For their findings, yesterday Drs. Marshall and Warren shared this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine and its $1.3 million prize. It's an inspired choice -- and a useful reminder that just because there's a scientific "consensus," that doesn't mean it's true.”
This is a great example of ignoring the arrogance of the medical establishment. It reminds of a phrase from the Paul Simon song "Kodachrome." Paraphrasing slightly: When I think back on all the crap I learned in med school, it's a wonder I can think at all.
Hooray, for Dr. Marshall, who very definitely could read the writing the wall. And then took the time to prove it. Thanks, man!
