Everyone Should Be a PhD of the Customer
Socrates saw the risk more than 2,000 years ago. When written language became a new mode of communication, the concern was not that writing was bad. The concern was that people might start confusing access to information with real understanding. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates tells the story of Theuth, the inventor of writing, who presents writing as a breakthrough for memory and wisdom. King Thamus pushes back. Writing, he says, will not truly strengthen memory. It will create reminders. People will be able to look things up, repeat what has been written, and appear knowledgeable — without necessarily carrying that knowledge inside them.
