Okay, let’s talk about this t.j. kuhn thing. It wasn’t like I set out to become an expert or anything. It just sort of happened, like most things in practice, right?
How It Started
So, I was working on this project, maybe a year or two back. We were really stuck. Like, properly jammed. We kept trying the same old tricks, the stuff that usually worked for us, but this time? Nothing. Zip. Nada. The team was getting frustrated, pointing fingers, the whole nine yards. You know how it goes. We were just running in circles, patching things up, but the core problem wasn’t going away. It felt like we were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, over and over again.
Digging In A Bit
One evening, just scrolling around online, trying to distract myself, I bumped into some discussion about how big ideas change in science. Mentioned this Kuhn guy. Sounded a bit high-brow at first, but the idea of ‘paradigm shifts’ caught my eye. It sounded kinda like what we were going through – our old ‘paradigm’, our usual way of tackling these problems, just wasn’t cutting it anymore.
I didn’t go read his big book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” cover to cover. Let’s be real, who has time for that? But I read some summaries, some articles explaining the main points. Things like:
- Normal Science: Doing the day-to-day stuff based on the accepted rules and theories. That was us, before we hit the wall.
- Anomalies: Problems that the current rules can’t explain or solve. Yeah, we had plenty of those. Our project was basically one big anomaly.
- Crisis: When anomalies pile up and people lose faith in the old ways. Definitely felt like a crisis brewing in the team meetings.
- Revolution/Shift: When a new way of thinking, a new ‘paradigm’, takes over because it explains things better.
Seeing it laid out like that, even in simple terms, was interesting. It wasn’t just random chaos; maybe there was a pattern to this mess we were in.
Trying to Make Sense of It
So, I started thinking about our project through this lens. Was our core assumption wrong? The very foundation we built our approach on? I began nudging the team, gently. Not using fancy words like ‘paradigm’ – that would just get eye-rolls. More like asking, “Guys, what if we’re looking at this completely backwards?” or “What’s the one thing we assume is true that might not be?”
It wasn’t easy. People are invested in the old ways, especially if they helped build them. There was resistance. Some folks doubled down, insisting the old methods would work if we just tried harder or tweaked them a bit more. It got tense sometimes. Felt like we were arguing about the fundamental nature of our work, almost.
The Outcome (Sort Of)
We didn’t have a sudden ‘eureka!’ moment like in the movies. It was much messier. We tried a few radical new approaches. Some failed spectacularly. But one started to show promise. It required us to ditch a lot of our old tools and assumptions. It felt weird, uncomfortable. But… it actually started solving the core problems. The ‘anomalies’ started making sense under this new way of looking at things.
Looking back, that whole experience mirrored what Kuhn talked about, in our own small, practical way. The breakdown of the old way, the struggle and resistance, and finally, the messy shift to something new that worked better for the new problems we faced. It wasn’t about applying Kuhn’s theory like a blueprint, more like recognizing a pattern he described playing out right in front of me. It made me understand that sometimes, you can’t just patch the old system. Sometimes, you really do need to throw out the rulebook and start fresh. It’s painful, it’s slow, but when the old way stops working, it’s often the only path forward.