testing When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. — Lao Tzu
43 Detach ‘Detach’ comes from the root tacca, a nail or tack or spot. Detachment is an active removal, a forceful, even violent extraction of one’s own passions from a task or situation. This habit of reason is not easy or ‘natural,’ because ultimately we are always pinned to the world, always involved. But no design proposal can be effectively judged and tested without engaging in this kind of rational exercise. One must try to see the proposals one has made, and the changes those proposals have brought about in the landscape, as though one had no particular interest in them other than to assess the relationship between claims and outcomes. One must, for a time, untack. So: when assessing a design, always doubt your own motives, always question your own interest. Get out of yourself; take up a view from nowhere.
For further reading:
Nagel, Thomas. The View from Nowhere. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way. Original work written around 500 bce. Boston: Shambhala, 2009.
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