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CronoDAS comments on Learned Blankness - LessWrong
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I'm reminded of a (probably untrue) story about officer training school in the British army: as part of a test, the officer candidates are asked what the correct way to dig a trench is. The correct answer is:
In other words, you saw a broken dishwasher, and you know that the way to fix a broken dishwasher is to find Steve Rayhawk and tell him that there's a dishwasher that needs fixing. Which you did, and it worked. ;)
That's different, though- it's probably a rather good way to teach people that their first impulse as an officer should be delegating that which can be delegated. I'd imagine that promoted engineers today need to train themselves not to start micromanaging the sort of project they'd previously have done themselves, but rather to give it to someone capable and leave them to do it.
Which is why evenness is one of the virtues. Some candidates need to be taught to delegate. Others need to be thought to think for ten seconds before throwing their hands up. Most probably need to be taught both.
Even if you're definitely going to delegate a task, it's a good idea to know a few things about how it's done. You might need to interrupt the Sergeant if he starts digging the trench wrong!
Yes... except when it isn't ;)
In a vacuum, yes, but there is opportunity cost.
Not just that, you need to know something about what people need to fulfill the orders you're given.