Keep A Way Open for Retreat

Summary:

    Keeping a way open for retreat is a good way to enhance flexibility. 

One big obstacle in trial-and-error learning is the little flexibility of innovative actions. In The Future of Technological Civilization, Prof. Woodhouse introduce ways to enhance flexibility and categorize the issue of innovation flexibility into several focuses that I would like to summarize in two aspects: flexibility in expenditure and flexibility in operation. Inspired by Woodhouse's tactic, my advice in preserving flexibility is always keeping a way open for retreat in all aspects of innovation.

There is an old Chinese tale goes like this: A general and his soldier has to fight against an army 10 times larger right on a river bank. The general successfully stimulated his soldiers by scuttling all the boats they could escape on, breaking all their cooker and burning down all their barracks, leaving themselves no way to retreat. They eventually won this battle. I admire him for his boldness, but I don't think this way of solving problem is applicable to technoscientific innovations. 

Compared to the general that wanted to win the battle by any means necessary and individuals that simply want to die with no regret, innovators definitely carry more responsibility. They innovate for their company, for their country, and for the world. They are responsible for the children, for humans, and for the nature. In innovative actions, always keep a way open for retreat to keep the flexibility high so that if anything anti-social happens, trial-and-error learning will be easier to carry on. 

Keep a way open for retreat in expenditure. Taking away the investment is a straightforward way to stop a innovation from proceeding when trial and error arise. My father once introduced me a friend of his, who was a investor focus mainly on IT industry. He told me some of his personal principles of doing business. After circumspectly investigating the company he is going to invest in and patiently getting to know the background and personality of the CEO of the company, he will not fulfill all the expenditure demanded regardless of whether he likes the company or not; instead, he will invest gradually. Pay for a prototype project, see how it goes, and be conscious of all political, moral, legal, social and technological outcomes, then decide whether or not continue the investment. His keeping a way open for retreat is, however, a business, investing strategy that benefits himself. But in fact, it benefits society in many aspect and prevent unbearably costly outcomes from happening by enhancing the flexibility of innovation. 

Keep a way open for retreat in operation. Do not put a innovative product into mass production or implement a revolutionary technology everywhere even after careful marketing investigation. Test it within a small scale, or on a small group of people. The city where I live in my home country is known as the capital district of hi-tech companies and the experimental field of novel policies. One innovation debuted in my city was the 'mobile library project'. You get free access to popular novels and classic books by swiping IDs on a machine, in which displays and stores the books, located in your neighborhood, just like using a coin machine. With the same ID, you can return the book at any machines you prefer. It was kind of revolutionary at that time, so the government decided to try in only one area in one city, to see if this project work as expected. 'Mobile library project' turned out to be a huge success. No book was stolen during half a year and people felt benefited from the convenience it brought. And now, thousands of mobile libraries are placed in neighborhoods in five cities, offering millions of people easy, free and immediate access to knowledge. The government kept a way open for retreat and preserved the flexibility by testing a technological innovation in a small scale, and then gradually spread it if it was proved beneficial and desirable. 

Having a plan B is also a way to keep a way open. Mostly it is good for a actually beneficial innovation to be having a plan B, because the value of the innovation might have to present to people in an alternative way. It is also a good way to enhance flexibility.