Ripping up the Syllabus

The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.
– Oliver Wendell Homes

How does your enterprise penetrate the bubble of fans that surrounds your cause?  Do you ever seek outsiders who have a fresh perspective?  Does your organization have enough tolerance to hear revolutionary ideas?

I had a professor in college who started his course on the American Revolution by passing out the syllabus.  He then asked us to rip them up.  He had been on sabbatical doing research for a new book and it had fundamentally altered the way he was going to teach the course.  His method for the coming semester was to make-it-up and borrow from existing ideas as we went along.  It was also his thesis for his book on the framing of the constitution.  The semester was memorable because we were adventuring into new territory as a group, not simply on a guided tour.

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