Experimentation Works

CHAPTER 7

Seven Myths of Business Experimentation

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

—NEWTON’S THIRD LAW OF MOTION

When Isaac Newton published his third law of motion in 1687, he unintentionally gave us a conceptual model that extended beyond the motion of physical objects. About three hundred years later, the economist Albert Hirschman applied this action-reaction lens to the study of political, social, and economic progress and arrived at a provocative conclusion. He proposed that opposition to progress is often “shaped, not so much by fundamental personality traits, but simply by the imperatives of argument, almost regardless of the desires, character, or conviction of the participants.”¹ Notwithstanding the experiences ...