Test and tune

It’s easy to believe that if we build solutions according to the principles, what we build will work. Certainly, that’s the case in many instances. But not, I suggest, when we’re talking about solutions for people? Why do we need to test and tune? Because we’re complex.

Materials, such as wood and steel have predictable properties. When you build a deck, you can follow the building codes for what you need to do for fixing posts to the ground, etc. However, people aren’t quite that predictable.

There’s a case to be made that the brain is the most complex thing in the known universe. In fact, we don’t fully know how it works! Thinking, then, that we can achieve a reliable change in the brain with simple mechanisms is kind of naive. We have to understand how the brain works, first, and then for complex changes, we need some detailed analysis and careful specification. However, we’re not done.