<div dir="ltr"><div>Yes, David, This is a metaphor that requires some work;. Indeed. The problem is that I always somehow imagine that it is the little boy who calls out the king who is naked. There is some sort of deep thing going on in the story about nakedness and innocence. The king is, in some sense, the most innocent of all. and the little boy, who presumably is fully clothed, is the wise one and yet it is the innocence of the little boy that drives the story. Sorry, as you see I am confusing myself. However, in my letter to friam, I meant to imply that those without PhD's are like the innocent little boy who that can see that the king is naked. Certainly there is some kind of crazy innocence in Trump that is occasionally beguiling and horrifying. ("Who knew that healthcare could be so complicated!")</div><div><br></div><div>Perhaps I should just drop the metaphor and speak to the beliefs the metaphor represents to me. Expertise both sights and blinds us; great expertise sights and blinds us greatly. The world needs, therefore, non-experts who stumble around in expert domains, because those people will occasionally see something important that the experts haven't seen. NSF has long believed in this principle. Kuhn believed it. I think it is one of the unspoken beliefs that unified the old FRIAM. I believe that people like us, who are willing to poke around at the fringes of some field, <b><i>sometimes </i></b>make a contribution to it. </div><div><br></div><div>I am, as usual, grateful for your willingness to "work" a metaphor. I think it is some of the most important work scientists can do. </div><div><br></div><div>Nick</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Mar 15, 2026 at 6:21\u202fAM Prof David West <<a href="mailto:profwest@fastmail.fm">profwest@fastmail.fm</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u><div><div style="font-family:Arial"> Nick, may I ask for some clarification? You said, "one of my favorite myth's is the Emperor's New Clothes, <i>"the idea that one can go PhD-less into some expert world and see something that expert practitioners are blind to."</i> What is mythical\u2014i.e., who has 'not clothes', the one(s) with the Ph.D.s or the one without?</div><div style="font-family:Arial"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial">dave west</div><div style="font-family:Arial"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial"><br></div><div>On Sat, Mar 14, 2026, at 6:24 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite" id="m_3680347266380360441qt"><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div>Hi, all, </div><div><br></div><div>Meteorology, like psychology, and quantum theory, etc. is a subject matter that collects fringy theorists. Since I am such a person, I cant really fault another human being for being one. Also, one of my favorite myth's is the Emperor's New Clothes, the idea that one can go PhD-less into some expert world and see something that expert practitioners are blind to. Today's post is thus an invitation to Shumlik Hazin's Substack and a summary of my interaction with its author over the last few weeks. I am not sure it's everybody's cup of tea, but those of you interested in the role of metaphor in science might ponder on it. </div><div><br></div><div>All the best, </div><div><br></div><div>Nick </div><div><div><span>--</span></div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Nicholas S. Thompson</div><div>Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology</div><div>Clark University</div><div><a href="mailto:nthompson@clarku.edu" target="_blank">nthompson@clarku.edu</a></div><div><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson" target="_blank">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson</a></div><div><a href="https://substack.com/@monist" target="_blank">https://substack.com/@monist</a></div></div></div></div></div><div>.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..</div><div>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv</div><div>Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom <a href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a></div><div>to (un)subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com" target="_blank">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a></div><div>FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com</a>/</div><div>archives: 5/2017 thru present <a href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/" target="_blank">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a></div><div> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com" target="_blank">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com</a>/</div><div><br></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:Arial"><br></div></div>.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..<br>
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</blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Nicholas S. Thompson</div><div>Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology</div><div>Clark University</div><div><a href="mailto:nthompson@clarku.edu" target="_blank">nthompson@clarku.edu</a></div><div><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson" target="_blank">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson</a></div><div><a href="https://substack.com/@monist" target="_blank">https://substack.com/@monist</a></div></div></div>