12 CURRENT ¢ DESIGN PROCESS WHAT IS WISDOM? What is design wisdom? This paper will explore the first question using established and emerging defini- tions. For the second question, I will propose that design wisdom is a fabric that emerges from the intersection of scientific and design- erly ways of knowing and doing. Design wisdom can be used both for making sense of the future and for giving shape to the future. WHAT IS WISDOM? Before getting into the topic of design wisdom it is helpful to define what the word wisdom actually means. The Merriam Webster defi- nition focuses on wisdom as something that you can gain and then hold onto or possess. “Wisdom is: : knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life : the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand : knowledge of what is proper or reasonable: good sense or judg- ment.” [6] Other definitions focus on wisdom as something that you both possess and use. These definitions of wisdom look toward its appli- cation in future life experiences. “A basic definition of wisdom is the judicious application of knowledge.” [8] “Wisdom... is the ability to think and act using knowledge, expe- rience, understanding, common sense, and insight.” [8] “Wisdom is not simply knowing what to do, but doing it.” [7] Thomas Lombardo, in the most recent issue of the World Future Review, expands upon the role of wisdom in our future ways of living. “Although wisdom is often associated with ‘lessons of life from the past,’ wisdom can be given a future focus, defined as the knowledge, desire, and capacity to create maximal well-being in the future, both for oneself and others.” [3] For the purpose of this short paper I will combine these definitions to say that wisdom is about understanding the world as it is today and then doing something with that knowledge in order to “create maximal well-being in the future, both for oneself and others” [3]. ACADEMICS AND PRACTITIONERS The first definition of wisdom, i.e., wisdom as something that you can gain and then hold onto or possess, describes the academic perspective. We talk about basic research as that which adds to the ENOWLEDGE Big IDEAS Bie PrcTURe INFORMATION NEW Views § CONCERTS DATA LITTLE BRIDGE IDEAS body of knowledge. The second set of definitions, i.e., wisdom as something that you both possess and use, describes the practitioner perspective. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, claims that the work that practitioners do is much more important than the work that academics do when it comes to discovery, innovation and technological progress. After having moved from the applied side to the academic side and then back again, Taleb is harsh in his views on academia. A few quotes provide a glimpse of his position and tone of voice. “Engineers and tinkerers develop things while history books are written by academics.” [5] “We don’t put theory into practice. We create theories out of Pp y Pp practice.” [5] “Theory came later, in a lame way, to satisfy the intellectual bean counter (in a description of the design development of the jet engine).” [5] Whereas Taleb’s book is certainly a powerful statement of the need to approach discovery from both sides (i.e., academic and practitioner), and is definitely worth reading, it is not clear whether academics will appreciate the message due to his tone. We need an approach that values the collaboration between the perspectives of academics and practitioners in the creation of wisdom that is more broadly defined. WHAT IS DESIGN WISDOM? In order to talk about design wisdom, I'll start with a framework that is useful for the analysis of the messy data characteristic of the fuzzy front end of the design and development process. Figure 1 shows the version of the initial framework that Pieter Jan Stappers and I introduced in our book Convivial Toolbox [4].