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entries for 2002/6/18
stop energy and flying pigs
Dave Winer points out the idea of Stop Energy:
Suppose someone, call him Mr. A, has an idea that he believes is ready to deploy, or is requesting comments as he is getting ready to deploy. So he posts an RFC, usually on a mail list or a website, in the hope that people will spot a problem and help him figure out a solution; or find no problems and co-develop an implementation, or develop a compatible implementation. In theory, the Internet is a collegial environment, with lots of people who want to do new stuff, where one should expect to get this kind of help.
In this scenario, A is a proponent of Forward Motion. In all likelihood, instead of getting help, A will encounter Stop Energy, reasons why he can't or shouldn't be allowed to do what he proposes.
That happens a lot in knowledge work. I've noticed it especially in business and programming. For example, I know I've dished out my own stop energy a few times, as in: "oh, python would be way too slow for doing that", or "you can't do this business because of XYZ.."
One of Eli Goldratt's books talks about this. He calls them flying pigs, as in "yeah, that'll happen when pigs fly". The thing is that if you run into a wall in one place, there are probably alternate solutions that you could have made further back, but ignored because of a flying pig (stop energy). But sometimes, clipping the wings off the pig and finding a different solution is easier than overcoming the hurdle with the solution you're working on now.
For example, the OpenEEG group is trying to build an EEG machine (brainwave monitor) that costs less than $100. Many people have pointed out that an EEG is basically a microphone that measures voltage directly instead of converting sound to voltage. Since brainwaves are analog signals, and computers need digital signals, all the current hardware plans implement a digital/analog converter. But a sound card already has such a converter, so in theory, it could make the EEG much simpler and cheaper.
Enter the flying pigs. The big one seems to be that most sound cards only pick up frequencies greater than 20hz, and brainwaves are in the 0-40Hz range. Then there's the issue of amplifying the signal so it's "loud" enough for the card to pick up. And then there's the duplex thing - if you want audio feedback, the sound card must be able to play and record at the same time. Interestingly, other people, outside the openEEG group, seem to have solved these problems. The only real difference is that EEGs need an isolating step - in other words, converting the electric signal to light for a short distance so that your head isn't plugged directly into the computer (because if it were, and something screwed up, you could be electrocuted).
Anyway, these are all valid concerns, and I think the associated stop energy is well intentioned. It usually is. For example, write in your weblog that you are going to become a vegetarian and you'll have 20 people writing you to tell you that you'll shrivel up and die if you do that. Ask me to partner with you because you want to build websites for $50 each and I'll write back with a long list of flying pigs to consider (like how you're going to have time to get sixty clients a month and then build sixth websites, without having to hire someone else). Sometimes the issues are valid, sometimes not, but the point is the person sending out the stop energy believes it, and if you listen to them, you probably won't go through with the idea.
I guess sometimes that's good and sometimes it's bad. I also think that sometimes we do it to ourselves without considering whether we can clip the wings off those pigs or not.