Tuesday, September 11, 2012

No experiment should be believed until it has been confirmed by theory

This is a phrase you should meditate. I read it in a New York Times article, dealing with an experiment which you have probably heard of. Some scientists made an experimentation where they were able to make some neutrinos faster than the speed of light, which according to the relativity theory of Albert Einstein, was supposed to be the fastest speed possible. The theory of relativity is one of the base of all the physics laws.Breaking up the speed of light meant to think through all the discovers found out based on the Einstein theory. 

Nevertheless, it appeared that this results seemed to have no theory backing it up, meaning it was an abnormal results, rather than a truth. 

"No experiment should be believed until it has been confirmed by theory". Scientists should have confirmed their results through theory. What does that mean? It means that experiments results must be understood and then explained by a theory before they actually mean somethig.

This point is very interesting, and you could correlate it to the world of business. A lot of the times, you may experiment some marketing techniques, sales concept, or new products, experience success. But it is very important to get a theory (or I should say a strategy) behind in order to make sure you may turn your experiment into a success on a larger scale. Too many times, because companies implies to have results fast, managers implement fast new concept stores, or marketing techniques, even before having thought them enough to make sure they would work.

I believe this story and line is very interesting and should be thought while defining one strategy.

What do you think about it?