A short note to state my own personal view of Simon's contribution to
design.
First: I was quite friendly with him. We interacted over a lengthy period
decades) and he once tried to hire me as Chair of the Psychology Department
at CMU.
His work on problem solving and means-ends analysis was highly influential
in psychology, computer science, and economics. His Nobel was in economics
on his ideas of bounded rationalism (including satisficing). he had a long
and productive collaboration with his colleague Allen Newell. Newell was
one of the founders of Human-Computer Interaction and he established a
powerful group at the then Xerox PARC, with Tom Moran and Stu Card.
But i often disagreed with both Newell and Simon. Their views were far too
reductionist for me. Herb believed all problem solving was means-ends
analysis. Both herb and Alan thought that external information -- and what
i have called "knowledge in the world" was not fundamentally different from
just another storage medium. And their work was all about information
processing: the body, emotion, social interaction, etc. played only a
minimal role (yes, Simon wrote about emotion, but in the same reductionist
way).
Simon was amazingly prolific. At conferences he would never show up for
the before breakfast run, and often not for breakfast. Why, we asked. "I
was writing a paper with that time." he would replay. He also claimed
never to read newspapers or keep up with current events. "It is a waste of
time: if something important happens, my colleagues will tell me." Instead,
he would use the time to write yet another paper."
His book "Sciences of the Artificial" was NOT about design: it was
primarily about computer science. He argued that most science dealt with
the real world. Computer science dealt with the the artificial world that
it itself had created. Yes, he talked about design, but as an information
processing activity.
I was extremely impressed with the first edition of the book. it was short
and succinct. A few years ago i decided to reread it but could not find my
copy. So i bought the latest edition (third). I was greatly disappointed.
He rambled on and on and, to me, showed a lack of knowledge of the real
work going on in design. The book serves as a warning to authors: beware
of revising a well-known book. (A fear I have about my soon to be published
revision of a well-known book: did I follow in Simon's footsteps and make
it worse?)
Herb was brilliant He changed the face of economic theory. He was
instrumental in transforming Psychology into a real science. He is one of
the co founders of the discipline known today as Artificial Intelligence
(AI). His work with Newell was greatly influential.
But I also believe his powerful methods led him astray. His views are too
narrow. He inspired a number of workers (including me) to go on to push his
approaches far beyond what he approved of. Ideas march on, and oftentimes
the fundamental ideas develop the foundations for their own overthrow.
So yes, honor Simon. But do not thereby always follow in his footsteps. To
do so would irritate him above all: he wanted people to think, to develop
new ways of thinking. If his work leads to people developing new approaches
that overthrow some of his approaches, he would be pleased.
Don
--
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group, IDEO Fellow
[log in to unmask] www.jnd.org http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/
Book: "Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded<http://amzn.to/ZOMyys>"
(DOET2). Pub date: November 2013
Course: Udacity On-Line course based on
DOET2<https://www.udacity.com/course/design101> (free).
Nov 2013.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|