#feedback #decision-making #reality to provide a continuous testing against actual events of the expectations that underlie the decision. > “Poor Ike; when he was a general, he gave an order and it was carried out. Now he is going to sit in that big office and he’ll give an order and not a damn thing is going to happen.” Reports—all a president is normally able to mobilize—are not much help. the officer who has given an order has to go out and sees for himself whether it has been carried out. With the coming of computers & globalization, this will become even more important because the decision-maker will in all likelihood be even further removed from the scene of action. All our computers can handle are abstractions, and abstractions can be relied on only if they're constantly checked against the concrete. Failure to go out and look is the typical reason for persisting in a course of action long after it has ceased to be appropriate or even rational. One needs organized information for the feedback. One needs reports and figures. But unless one builds one’s feedback around direct exposure to reality—unless one disciplines oneself to go out and look—one condemns oneself to a sterile dogmatism and with it to ineffectiveness. [[Innovators & entrepreneurs are often hindered by their own knowledge & beliefs]] [[Documented Primary Interactions (DPIs) -- Engaging Directly with Reality]]