Heller has this wonderful observation about learning that is very insightful. He views the world of knowledge as divided into two plants - - sunflowers and bougainvillea. Engineering is a profession dominated by sunflower and sunflower people. Engineering, research, technology, and businesses tend to perceive ideas entities that speak for themselves, that can be harvested, that inspire and uplift people who handle them. Picture the engineer walking around holding a sunflower. The sunflower is about specialization and the desire by many people to go narrow.
Engineering historically has been very self-contained. A sunflower, after all, is a thing that an engineer can carry around for quite some time. Its form and beauty hold after it has lost its roots. It can be given to another engineer or set in a vase to add some substance to its surroundings.
But engineering faces a far more complex world full of interdisciplinary challenges and opportunities. This world is more akin to bougainvillea - - plants that are thick with interlocking vines whose blooms are shaped much like their leaves. They spread in the direction of sunlight and nutrients - - without a set path or plan. Unlike the sunflowers, bougainvillea are hard to separate and handle. You cannot put a bougainvillea flower in a vase. The interlocking nature of bougainvillea is a good metaphor for problem solving - - to understand A, you must be aware of B and C.
Engineering needs both the sunflower and bougainvillea. But planting both in the same field is hugely problematic - - the world of the narrow interfacing with the world of the broad. Their coexistence can become downright awkward.
Maybe great leaders are also great gardeners.
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