Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective

by Kenneth O. Stanley

That may seem obvious because subjecting a cell to an IQ test (or any intelligence test) is unquestionably ridiculous. But the fact that it is ridiculous is exactly the point, and is why this experiment should ring alarm bells for anyone who still believes in the myth of the objective. Is it any less ridiculous to search for skulls on Picbreeder by comparing the image you’re currently breeding to a skull? Is it any less ridiculous to try to achieve any far-off, ambitious objective by measuring how close it is to our best candidate so far? What this thought experiment exposes is that the traditional approach to achievement, driven by and informed by objectives, can lead to genuinely ridiculous behavior. But ridiculous or not, the assumption that objectives should drive achievement dominates our culture and our everyday lives.

Are there actual examples of this? It seems like the "ambitious" goals the authors discuss would not be formulated at all, making the point moot