Can a "realization" change the world?

Generic notion #257b. Consider the quote that begins “When IBM realized that it was not in the office automation business but rather the information processing business, everything changed….” Is there a generic term for this kind of realization? Part of it is just coming to see the truth, overcoming illusions, getting it right finally. But there seems to be a separate dimension here, something other than just coming to a correct empirical understanding of the world. One piece of this seems to be reframing; the realization has implications for re-interpreting other information and re-channeling how actions will be based on existing information/knowledge. Hints here, then, of a sort of “paradigm shift” (to use an overused and misused term). Hmmm, back to work.

Author: Dan Ryan

I'm currently an Academic Program Director at MinervaProject.com. I've been a professor at University of Toronto, University of Southern California, and Mills College teaching things like human centered design, computational thinking, modeling for policy sciences, and social theory. I'm driven by the desire to figure out how to teach twice as many twice as well twice as easily.

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