[WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia

[William Pietri]

I have snipped most of a very interesting post to add one small tangent:

John Lee wrote:
> In short, policy is a substitute for common sense. 

I think I'd say this a little differently. If common sense is a road, I 
think of policy as the rumble strips and crash barriers. They're not a 
substitute, exactly, but they should follow similar contours and try to 
limit the scope of problems.


In my field, Alistair Cockburn borrowed the Shu-Ha-Ri model of learning 
martial arts and applied it to software teams learning new methods. I've 
found it very useful. The actual model has a rich history, but my 
cartoon of it goes like this. In going from beginner to master, there 
are three stages:

   1. Follow the rules.
   2. Understand the rules.
   3. Transcend the rules.


In the first stage, novices have a real hunger for rules. They can't and 
usually don't want to understand what's going on. They just want to 
follow some simple steps and get the desired result. In the second 
stage, they still follow the rules, but not mechanically; here they gain 
an understanding of the purposes behind the rules. In the third stage, 
one understands the principles so deeply that one has no need of the rules.

So I generally think of our various policies as a harm limitation device 
for newbies, an educational tool for those settling in, and a convenient 
focus of discussion for masters.

William


P.S. Sorry for the duplicate paper link earlier; I should have read all 
the new posts before replying, not just the ones my mailer thought were 
part of the thread.


-- 
William Pietri <william at scissor.com>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Pietri