Self-experimentation (at least, mine) is an example of what larger category?
My self-experimentation was very practical: I improved my sleep, mood, and health (went from average number of colds/winter to no colds/winter), and lost weight. My omega-3 self-experimentation has improved my balance. From this point of view self-experimentation looks like engineering. > 99.99% of engineering is making things better. The entirely new thing (e.g., the transistor) is very rare. The connection with Eric von Hippel’s work (who finds that product users do a lot of innovative engineering) is pretty clear. I “used” (applied) scientific research — for example, mood research.
Yesterday, however, Tyler Cowen, who knows ethnic restaurants, posted this:
Four chairs, one table, A+ decor, and the best Asian food in D.C. Nothing nearby comes close. Staff = 1, so you must call not only for reservations, but indeed hours in advance with an actual order so he can start making your food. I loved the salmon in red curry sauce, the pad thai, the larb, and some amazing chicken dish with the guy’s last name on it; the drunken noodles are recommended as well. But I am not not not saying the other dishes are worse. 515 Florida Avenue, NW.
I’ll never view the theory of the firm in the same light again. Monitoring doesn’t work, and who needs division of labor anyway? The coolest place in DC right now, by far.
This is an example of what might be called the stunning single case — in this instance, drawn from everyday life. A stunning single case is an observation that casts doubt on a well-respected theory or leads to a new theory.
Another view of self-experimentation is that it is a way to learn from — take advantage of — stunning single cases in everyday life. Which is science (more precisely, theory building), not engineering. For example, one morning I woke up and felt much better than usual. This one event launched several years of self-experimentation that led to a new theory of mood.
The Shangri-La Diet was suggested by a single event (loss of appetite in Paris) but the theory behind the diet, which helped me learn from that event, was already there. (It was inspired by rat experiments.) The Paris event had a small effect on my theory but a big effect on how well I applied the theory. If all applications of theory count as engineering, the post-Paris development of SLD was engineering.
(Incidentally, I didn’t notice the “not not not” in Tyler’s post until the third or fourth reading, an example of repetition blindness.)