Are "Best Practices," Best?
Most government central planning is based on the notion that scientific experts can determine “best practices” which will rationally control human decision-making.
They assume they can put all the relevant scientific theories together and come up with something like a black box. The doctor will feed the symptoms into the black box and the best practices answer will just pop out like a receipt at an ATM machine.
It doesn’t work that way. Not in economics, agriculture, parenting, or medicine. Unfortunately, almost all proposals for central government control rely on best practice mechanisms.
Science is a tool for understanding the world. Practical or applied sciences are tools for changing the world. But everyone, even scientists, use an enormous web of different scientific theories to explain reality and to make decisions. Each theory is like a net or a lens which only picks-up and explains some facts and ignores others. So when macroeconomic theories fail in practice, the theoretical economists generally claim they failed because of “externalities.” Externalities are facts that a particular theory cannot anticipate and cannot deal with. And those facts don’t simply go away. Facts can be stubborn that way.
Let’s take ulcers as an example. Throughout most of human history, stomach ulcers were identified simply as very bad stomachaches. Then people noticed that certain foods like spicy curry often, but not always, were associated with some very bad stomachaches. Other scientists discovered that nervous people were far more likely to get ulcers. In fact, some ulcer patients thrive on curry. As scientific tools advanced, someone discovered that there is a great deal of iron excreted in the patient’s feces. That means internal bleeding. Ulcer patients could and often did bleed to death. So for years the best practices treatment of ulcers recommended the patients eat only baby food, ingest antacids (and later newly developed drugs to inhibit the production of stomach acids) and take tranquilizers. If the hemorrhaging continued, a surgeon would cut out the ulcerated sores taking with them a large part of the stomach. Believe it or not, such stomach surgery was quite common until a few decades ago when some enterprising scientists came up with the crackpot theory that some ulcers were caused by bacteria. Those scientists began treating ulcer patients with antibiotics. For many people it worked. So the best practices people, even the surgeons, had to modify all the earlier theories to fit the new facts. Each of those theories is true to some extent. Which combination of treatments the doctor and patient choose is a question of what works for this doctor, this patient, and this situation. There is no magical “best practices” black box. No abracadabra. But thanks to the willingness to use and adapt new theories and to respect the facts, stomach surgery as a treatment of ulcers is virtually a thing of the past.
So if you are a doctor, a farmer, a parent, an entrepreneur (or all of the above) keep informed on all the available science and best practice literature. But every patient, every alfalfa field, every child, every business is different. And don’t ignore the knowledge you, your family, and your neighbors have accumulated over the years. Studies have shown that the average man in the street is a better predictor of the future state of the economy than the educated economist. Decisions made at the individual level tend to work out better.
Unfortunately, you can’t just put off making decisions until you have enough information. In the real world decisions must be made under conditions of uncertainty. You won’t ever have enough information until your crop is harvested, your patient recovers/dies, or your child is in her thirties.
So:
- Pray that you have made the right decision;
- Hedge your bets;
- Constantly adapt to the unexpected; and
- Try not to worry yourself into a case of ulcers.
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Sep '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
Not bad Fake John.
I work in a field that has 'best practices' (business analysis). I see a few impacts.
Positives:
Negative:
In other words, people can communicate but that doesn't often result in good outcomes.
I think this sort of dichotomy applies in many cases. Best practices enable one to communicate, cover themselves and make sure they didn't miss anything huge. But they often result in inferior solutions if used by somebody who can better tailor solutions to the problem they are facing.
Ultimately, there ought to be two tiers. One tier pushes innovative solutions. The other makes sure all the underlying checks created by 'best practices' are fulfilled. Finally, the best practices should be just that - ways of checking for common mistakes.
Mar '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
I think of Best Practises as a "tried and true" way of doing non-innnovative things. So, for example, we all (I hope) try to drive according to these principles. Best Practise is very good for things designed to maximize safety.
But as cbc points out, it is lousy for any innovative decision making or anything requiring creativity.
Dec '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
I think "doctors and surgeons should wash their hands" is certainly a very helpful best practice.
Equipment should be cleaned and thoroughly santized is another.
Best practices are fine when they are in fact best practices.
Edited on April 27, 2012 at 4:57pmDec '10
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
iWc: I think of Best Practises as a "tried and true" way of doing non-innnovative things. So, for example, we all (I hope) try to drive according to these principles. Best Practise is very good for things designed to maximize safety.
But as cbc points out, it is lousy for any innovative decision making or anything requiring creativity. · 44 minutes ago
I must concur. There are times and places for radical innovation, and there are times and places where creativity should definitely be discouraged. Where I work is one of those discourage places.
Jan '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
The contrast to central planning is a market. When distributing resources, the advantage of any market is how it gathers usable knowledge.
Well, obviously a market's advantage is that it cuts out the middleman. In a market, instead of asking A what B will want, we just ask B directly. And if patterns and desires change, we learn about the change directly, instead of waiting for the expert to detect the change and bother to tell us.
Markets thrive when the challenge is to discover where to allocate resources based on the needs and desires of recipients. Of course, not every government task is a distribution, and not every government responsibility is based on what the recipients want.
Aug '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
KC,
I could not have said it any better.
This was what I was trying to say, before I came to understand (thanks to this Ricochet discussion) that the Obama statists are using the phrase "best practices" in part because it piggy backs off of ordinarily accepted procedures we generally follow in our daily lives.
Jun '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
Strong post.
In my experience, the "best practices" cookbook sort of approach is most popular with those that don't have direct contact with the real world realities in their subject area. Those that do have direct contact know that reality is too subtle for the cookbook approach - which approach can actually be an impediment to proper decision making, requiring extra justification or increasing liability.
Aug '10
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
The King Prawn
iWc: I think of Best Practises as a "tried and true" way of doing non-innnovative things. So, for example, we all (I hope) try to drive according to these principles. Best Practise is very good for things designed to maximize safety.
But as cbc points out, it is lousy for any innovative decision making or anything requiring creativity.
I must concur. There are times and places for radical innovation, and there are times and places where creativity should definitely be discouraged. Where I work is one of those discourage places.
Even when discussing "best practices for lunchroom doughnut distribution"?
;-)
Dec '10
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
Misthiocracy
The King Prawn
iWc: I think of Best Practises as a "tried and true" way of doing non-innnovative things. So, for example, we all (I hope) try to drive according to these principles. Best Practise is very good for things designed to maximize safety.
But as cbc points out, it is lousy for any innovative decision making or anything requiring creativity.
I must concur. There are times and places for radical innovation, and there are times and places where creativity should definitely be discouraged. Where I work is one of those discourage places.
Even when discussing "best practices for lunchroom doughnut distribution"?
;-) · 9 minutes ago
Best practice for that is to not get bit or forked...
Dec '10
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
I posted this in the thread on Monopoly - Free Parking. Misthiocracy suggested I should cross post it here as well:
Wait a minute, wait a minute! Of course you play it with the jackpot. It is replenished by every fine, tax, etc. that comes out of Community Chest or Chance cards. When you land on Free Parking, it's the Monopoly equivalent of winning the lottery.
Some of you would question this practice? You must be part of the 1%. Those of us in the 99% know that if you don't play it with the jackpot, the fat cat bankers end up with all of the money. It's just not fair. If the game were fair and equitable, when I landed on Boardwalk where you have 2 hotels, youshould be paying me rent! That's only fair. And every time I pass Go, I want all of you to count up your money and property. If your net worth exceeds mine, you have to give me the excess. It's only fair!
Nov '11
Re: Are "Best Practices," Best?
Good post. Reminds me a bit of this Bill Whittle video - "Love of Theory is the Root of All Evil".