Monday, January 30, 2012

Conceptualization is Easier Than Actualization

This is a phrase I've been throwing out for a while and I wanted to post it here to both explain it and "anchor" it in case it takes off. It's not strictly research related - I use it more in IT, but it is research that makes me write this today. Put simply; it is easier to think of something than to put it in place. I run into a lot of clients who think that migrating X project will be simple, or that because they want to be able to do something, it should be easy to implement. The same happens with research. The vast majority of people have never researched in any sort of archives and have no concept of what needs to happen. Internet search engines like Google give a false idea of what is possible; people say "I want everything on this ship!" not realizing that you've got many different areas to search because different commands created their own records. A ship generates their deck logs, but the shipyard tracks alterations performed, and the task force commander tracks which ship did what in a particular action. So, if you want a somewhat long way of saying I'm more of an idea rat, then remember "It's easier to conceptualize than actualize."

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