Your Dinner Party

You hosted a dinner party last weekend at your home. You invited two different sets of your friends. The first group of friends are the liberal arts bunch - - typically four years of a liberal arts education. This was followed by graduate work at a professional school or a master’s program. They ended up as lawyers, politicians, and teachers. The second group are your engineering friends. They represent a broad cross-section of the profession - - different disciplines and industries. You arrange the tables and the seating in such a manner that your liberal arts friends are all together - - you do the same for your engineering friends. It is organized such that you sit in the middle of the two separate groups. Over the course of two hours you do very little talking - - you only listen to the two groups and you listen very closely. After the party you set down and reflect on what you have heard and learned. You think you have learned two things. The first is that one of the groups knows absolutely nothing about absolutely everything. The second thing is that the other group knows absolutely everything about absolutely nothing. You think about that for a moment and what that means in the context of solving some of our really big national and international problems. You think that to solve big problems and develop effective ideas and solutions - - these two groups need to be on the same page. This thought depresses you a little - - so you go to bed.