# S3 Ep3 — Alex Schmidt – Deliberate Intervention ![rw-book-cover](https://wsrv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faudioboom.com%2Fi%2F36797918.jpg&w=100&h=100) URL:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/9e9da989-e9bd-40ea-9048-ce564f913701 Author:: Power of Ten with Andy Polaine ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > Episode AI notes > 1. Interdisciplinarity requires professional humility and the willingness to learn from others. The tech industry values fast decision-making and breaking things, but the scale of harm can be significant. There is a need for a middle ground that allows for careful progress and the ability to undo mistakes. > 2. Approaching other professions with humility is crucial for interdisciplinary collaboration. By finding common ground and understanding different perspectives, innovative solutions can be discovered. This mindset can be applied to the tech industry, where the balance between speed and avoiding careless mistakes is important. ([View Highlight](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/b7c88f89-6029-43b0-82cb-b7f48246514b)) > Interdisciplinarity requires professional humility > Summary: > Interdisciplinarity requires professional humility. Simon Penny emphasized the importance of approaching other professions with humility. By doing so, both parties can find common ground and discover innovative solutions. This concept can be applied to the tech industry as well, where fast decision-making clashes with the need to avoid careless mistakes. > Transcript: > Speaker 2 > But a lot of them know that they need to someone once said to me, I've completely forgotten who it was actually, but ages going to phrase though, that stuck with me, which was like I could Simon Penny, actually in Australia. And he said about interdisciplinarity is really about deep professional humility, you know, this idea that you absolutely have to be prepared to go to the other person's profession With great humility, like I have no idea how you do what you do. And the both sides then find each other and find a third way that way. Because it feels to me if we took the tech industry, the other end of, you know, taking ages to make decisions and so forth, obviously move fast and break things, right? Or just break things if you're Elon. And you've got this both sides that acknowledge the fact that you break things. ([Time 0:39:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/671d5729-1ed9-4128-bb84-4d24bab84f81)) > The Importance of Interdisciplinarity > Summary: > Interdisciplinarity requires professional humility and the willingness to learn from others. The tech industry values fast decision-making and breaking things, but the scale of harm can be significant. There is a need for a middle ground that allows for careful progress and the ability to undo mistakes. > Transcript: > Speaker 2 > But a lot of them know that they need to someone once said to me, I've completely forgotten who it was actually, but ages going to phrase though, that stuck with me, which was like I could Simon Penny, actually in Australia. And he said about interdisciplinarity is really about deep professional humility, you know, this idea that you absolutely have to be prepared to go to the other person's profession With great humility, like I have no idea how you do what you do. And the both sides then find each other and find a third way that way. Because it feels to me if we took the tech industry, the other end of, you know, taking ages to make decisions and so forth, obviously move fast and break things, right? Or just break things if you're Elon. And you've got this both sides that acknowledge the fact that you break things. But obviously the scale of what initially the scale of harm is a governmental level was perceived to be far greater than, you know, a tech startup making mistakes. And now we know that's not the case, you know, the scale of harm can be vast on both sides. It feels like there's a language around speed is problematic there that there's a kind of move just fast enough to carefully possibly break some stuff, but know how to undo it. If you can, you know, there's a middle language there that I feel is missing. > Speaker 1 > I love that. I really resonate with so much of what you just said. And I completely agree and I kind of wish I'd put some of that in my book. ([Time 0:39:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1d927c2c-6d40-493d-9f3a-a6be5e4e1fec))