Jonah Lehrer talks about the importance of the outside perspective in this video from his appearance at Poptech, describing how people "just on the outside of a domain" are often better at solving problems in that domain. Why should this be so? Paddy Harrington at Fast Company:
We have a saying at Bruce Mau Design: 'Amateurs going in, experts going out.' For a long time, we struggled to articulate the benefit of being a 'nonexpert' in a field. We often talk about 'fresh eyes' in design. When you’re working too long with anything, by definition, you can’t 'see' it anymore. It helps to get a person unfamiliar with the work to give a fresh perspective. Well, it turns out that this is a fundamental pillar of innovation: Our habits form what’s called a ventral route. It’s like a rut in a road. It gets so deep that you simply can’t get out without outside help. Using a story about InnoCentive as a starting point, Lehrer describes the paradox of expertise in that it can sometimes become an obstacle to creative problem solving:
The IdeaFestival specializes in fresh perspectives.
Wayne