And these are Matthew Syed’s opening paragraphs in The Times as he explains how intellectuals are over-complicating the beautiful game:

‘Conventional wisdom says that the industrial revolution was a triumph of intellectuals. The theoretical breakthroughs of Sir Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle inspired the creation of the steam engine and the like. Indeed, technology is often defined as “the application of scientific knowledge to practical projects”.

‘This would have come as some surprise to Thomas Newcomen, however. Biographies of the inventor of the steam engine reveal that he was a semi-literate lay preacher who knew nothing of Newton or Boyle. Instead, he patiently tweaked his machine, increasing its effectiveness and, therefore, profitability. His machines were not created by theory, but through trial and error.

‘The great iconoclast Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls this the “scientism fallacy”: the tendency to over-intellectualise the expertise of craftsmen…’

Simply wonderful.

 

Recommended reading of the day
Paolo Bandini on Napoli.

Nick Wright and Keith Downie on Newcastle.

James Piercy on Omar Abdulrahman.