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I don't know how I feel about this.
I was just reading a rant about Numb3rs--specifically, about the implausibility of the FBI calling on the same math consultant to solve this ridiculously wide array of problems, most of which ought to be way, way outside his field--when I had a thought.
Not just any thought. A thought which applied my area of advanced education to a plausibility problem on my favorite TV show and left me thinking it might not be so implausible.
I suddenly feel like grad school is worthwhile after all.
First, of course, you can't look at it as 'The FBI' and 'a math consultant,' you have to think of it as 'Don Eppes and his team' and 'Don's brother and his team.' They're not snowmobile parts, they're people.
So, okay, here's where my education comes in: the very first class I had to take in library school was called "Information Use" and it boiled down to a study of what people do when they need information. In general, they realize they have some need for some kind of information, and then they choose a method of obtaining that information.
Studies have shown that the most important factor in making a decision for how to fill an information need--especially an information need that is time-sensitive, as in the case of a term paper deadline or a SERIAL KILLER, whatever--is not accuracy, not expertise, not best or most current information available. It's the perceived ease of use.
This is why Google is king; not because it gets you good or accurate or citeable information, but because everyone can use it. By the same token, people tend to consult friends or people they're already familiar with long before they consult experts of any kind. If your friend is an expert, that may seem to cloud the issue, but the fact is that you're still going to someone familiar to you who is easy to approach.
So. While Don and his team might be procedurally in the tall grass, calling in Charlie and Amita to trace VoIP calls or review evidence, as a question of human behavior, they're doing exactly what people do. They know Charlie; they know he gets the job done. Therefore he--or people associated with him--are nearly always going to be the first call they make for anything in the vaguely math/computers/science-related conceptual field. Yes, the FBI no doubt has in-house people and other consultants and, yeah, maybe this just pushes the plausibility question back to "Why aren't Don and his team familiar with those people?" but this works for me. I'm going with it.
Not just any thought. A thought which applied my area of advanced education to a plausibility problem on my favorite TV show and left me thinking it might not be so implausible.
I suddenly feel like grad school is worthwhile after all.
First, of course, you can't look at it as 'The FBI' and 'a math consultant,' you have to think of it as 'Don Eppes and his team' and 'Don's brother and his team.' They're not snowmobile parts, they're people.
So, okay, here's where my education comes in: the very first class I had to take in library school was called "Information Use" and it boiled down to a study of what people do when they need information. In general, they realize they have some need for some kind of information, and then they choose a method of obtaining that information.
Studies have shown that the most important factor in making a decision for how to fill an information need--especially an information need that is time-sensitive, as in the case of a term paper deadline or a SERIAL KILLER, whatever--is not accuracy, not expertise, not best or most current information available. It's the perceived ease of use.
This is why Google is king; not because it gets you good or accurate or citeable information, but because everyone can use it. By the same token, people tend to consult friends or people they're already familiar with long before they consult experts of any kind. If your friend is an expert, that may seem to cloud the issue, but the fact is that you're still going to someone familiar to you who is easy to approach.
So. While Don and his team might be procedurally in the tall grass, calling in Charlie and Amita to trace VoIP calls or review evidence, as a question of human behavior, they're doing exactly what people do. They know Charlie; they know he gets the job done. Therefore he--or people associated with him--are nearly always going to be the first call they make for anything in the vaguely math/computers/science-related conceptual field. Yes, the FBI no doubt has in-house people and other consultants and, yeah, maybe this just pushes the plausibility question back to "Why aren't Don and his team familiar with those people?" but this works for me. I'm going with it.