Time-Tested Solutions

I suppose I shouldn't make too much of a habit of putting Elon Musk down, but his contribution to the recent cave rescue in Thailand hits a lot of the same points that I had problems with the last time I mentioned him in my blog. Nor am I the only one who thinks so, given the editorial I found about it.

To be entirely fair, I don't have a problem with the attempt to provide a mini-sub. When you're in a desperate situation, any idea is worth at least considering, and Musk deserves a lot of credit for being willing to put his ideas forward and to put so much of his own time and money behind them. That's something that a lot of people won't do even when they should, and so that deserves a lot of praise.

However, I do feel like any experienced innovator or inventor should realize that not all their ideas will necessarily work straight off. Some of Musk's reactions to being told that the mini-sub wasn't suitable for the cave rescue don't exactly give me the impression he knows that. In fact, they look like the sort of defensive reactions I'd expect out of someone who is too distracted by a shiny new idea to stop and think critically about it. That's considerably less good, because those shiny new ideas aren't always going to be what works best.

Let me use an example: I've been playing a particularly challenging platforming game lately, one that often requires me to figure out how to jump and move in order to get through the various levels. Sometimes, it's greatly to my benefit to take a step back and try a different path through the level when the one I'm trying is failing repeatedly; I've discovered quite a few better options by experimenting a bit when my first attempt isn't working. But it's also often true that I'm already on the right course, and simply need to practice with my current solution until I can execute it with the required speed and precision; spending extra time to experiment with other options is wasted time and effort in those situations.

A lot of innovators like Musk are very good at the first option, but not so good at the latter. I'm not sure I'd call knowing when each option is best a different kind of ingenuity or creativity, as the editorial I linked does... but it is still its own form of wisdom, and it is still quite necessary in order for us to build a better world. So while I'll take people who are too aggressive about experimentation and innovation over people who aren't aggressive enough, given my choice I want people who can strike the right balance between new ideas and time-tested ones.