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Risk taxonomy: Difference between revisions
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====It’s a [[narrative]]==== | ====It’s a [[narrative]]==== | ||
Any [[taxonomy]] is a [[narrative]]. Like any hierarchical organising system, a taxonomy commits you to one way of looking at the world, ''at the expense of all others''. Now this a necessary evil when it comes to concrete physical things, like books: the [[Dewey decimal system]] is a single hierarchy — a ''[[narrative]]'' — by necessity: a physical thing cannot be in two places at once. So all library users agree a common taxonomy (subject matter, not author, or title, or publisher) and, for better or worse, stick to it. | Any [[taxonomy]] is a [[narrative]]. Like any hierarchical organising system, a [[taxonomy]] commits you to ''one'' way of looking at the world, ''at the expense of all others''. Now this a necessary evil when it comes to concrete physical things, like books: the [[Dewey decimal system]] is a single hierarchy — a ''[[narrative]]'' — by necessity: a physical thing cannot be in two places at once. So all library users agree a common taxonomy (subject matter, not author, or title, or publisher) and, for better or worse, stick to it. | ||
But legal risks ''aren’t'' concrete things. They have no concrete existence at all. They’re amorphous, will-o’-the-wisp, they are [[black swans]] — the big ones do not necessarily exist on the frame of consciousness of even the most paranoid [[risk controller]] ''before they happen''. Indeed, ''that '''is''' the risk''. | |||
This has a consequent effect on how one thinks about the world: if you want to find the book you're looking for, you must accept the prevailing taxonomy (what good is using another taxonomy, however suitable, if it means never being able to find the book you are after?) Since the need for physical book storage has changed — we can now enforce a [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] split between the book ''as intellectual concept'' and ''as physical artifact'', and the physical artifact isn’t the interesting bit — the [[Dewey decimal system]] has more or less disappeared from use. Boolean search means you can search on any keyword you fancy. | This has a consequent effect on how one thinks about the world: if you want to find the book you're looking for, you must accept the prevailing taxonomy (what good is using another taxonomy, however suitable, if it means never being able to find the book you are after?) Since the need for physical book storage has changed — we can now enforce a [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] split between the book ''as intellectual concept'' and ''as physical artifact'', and the physical artifact isn’t the interesting bit — the [[Dewey decimal system]] has more or less disappeared from use. Boolean search means you can search on any keyword you fancy. | ||