경영서와 과학서
경영서를 읽다 보면, 좀 불만스러울 때가 있죠. 그냥 … 다르다는 점을 인정하기가 좀 쉽지 않을 때도 많구요… 아래에서 읽은 조프리 밀러는 경영서와 과학서의 차이에 대해서 이렇게 말합니다. 이거, 나름대로 리스트로 만들어도 재밌겠어요… 추가해 보는 것도 재밌겠구요…
The advances in evolutionary psychology and individual differences research have rarely been used to understand consumerism, because very few consumer researchers understand the new psychology, and very few psychologists know anything about marketing, advertising, or product development. It is admittedly different to straddle the worlds of science and business. Science strives for cumulative progress through humbly authoritarian respect for one’s predecessors (through citations) and colleagues (through collaboration and peer review), whereas most new business books pretend to offer 100 percent fresh, new, radical, and unprecedented concepts, enabling its authors to profit from corporate speeches and consulting work. Science tries to build coherent, nuanced, testable theories that look gravely intimidating, whereas business books offer bullet-point lists and two-by-two graphs that look winsomely simple. Scientists try to use consistent technical terms that can be understood by them and no one else, whereas business books invent wacky new catchphrases that sound great but that can’t really be understood by anyone (Gung ho! The millionaire mind! Who moved my cheese? Lead like Jesus! Eat that frog! Purple cow!). (Geoffrey Miller, Spent, p. 29)
솔직히 경영서 읽다가 짜증낸 적이 몇 번 있는 것 같은데 (좀 많은 것 같은데), 뭐 꼭 그럴 필요는 없겠죠. 소설 읽으면서 과학서적 읽을 때와 같은 것을 기대하는 것 만큼 어리석은 짓이겠죠… 그런데, 그럼, 경영서는 소설일까요, 과학서적일까요?
