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MIT Disobedience Award

What a great idea!  I wonder if persistence in pursuing an ecological approach to exploring human cognition and Cognitive Systems Engineering would qualify as disobedience.  The fact that this persistence led to the denial of tenure at Illinois [banishment to the Pointless Forest] and the fact that we had to self-publish our most recent book [What Matters? ] might be seen as the consequences of disobedience. We don't fit the standard mold. We haven't conformed to the conventional wisdom.

Over the last 30 years we have challenged conventional assumptions about cognition, causality, human factors, and design.  We have crossed disciplinary boundaries and pursued a multi-disciplinary approach in a world dominated by stovepipes! We have endured rejections from publishers and funding agencies. We have defied publishing conventions by illustrating What Matters with cartoons and making the book available as a free pdf (close to 3000 downloads in less than a year).

After 30 years swimming against the stream, we continue to move forward, despite significant friction and inertia we remain eccentric. We take the less travelled path. We persist!

MIT Media Lab's Disobedience Award

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