The distinguishing feature of one’s boss is that this person has certain kinds of (formally recognized) power over you within your organization’s hierarchy
You’re considering just the word “boss”. Consider the phrase “real boss”. Regardless of the meanings of the constituent words, the phrase itself can often be replaced with “the one with the real power”, or “the one who actually makes the decisions.” For example, “The king may have nominal power, but he’s really only a figurehead, his vizier is the real boss.”
Now, we still find something lacking in that the mice don’t actually make decisions, the people observing the mice do. However, if the people observing the mice care about doing good research, then decisions about what course of action to take in the future must take into account what happens with the mice. What happens with the mice provides evidence which forces the researchers to update their models, possibly changing the optimal course of action, or fail. The literal meaning “The mice provide evidence, forcing us to update our models, making us, in order to do our job correctly, change our decisions.” may be expressed metaphorically as “The mice make decisions on how to do our job correctly” or “The mice are the real boss.”
From the context of the article, in which he uses this as an argument for not coming up with certain specific goals before beginning research, this is likely what the author meant.
What happens with the mice provides evidence which forces the researchers to update their models, possibly changing the optimal course of action, or fail. The literal meaning “The mice provide evidence, forcing us to update our models, making us, in order to do our job correctly, change our decisions.” may be expressed metaphorically as “The mice make decisions on how to do our job correctly” or “The mice are the real boss.”
Well, except that the researchers could:
a) Ignore the evidence b) Fudge or outright falsify the evidence (horribly unethical, but it happens) c) Abandon the experiments and do something else etc.
and deciding to do any of these things is influenced heavily by what your boss does (i.e. what rules and incentives exist in your organization).
I do get the point made by wylram in the other subthread (communicating to your boss that one cannot change reality by managerial fiat), and it’s a good point, I just don’t find that it’s conveyed well by the original quote (or even the source article). The key issue here, for me, is that despite the fact that “the mice” (but really more like “the laws of reality”) are what determine the outcome of the experiment, not your boss, that does not mean that said laws of reality, much less said mice, in any way supplant your boss as the agent who is in control of your career advancement, position in the company, etc. (Incidentally, that is why the vizier / figurehead analogy does not hold.)
You’re considering just the word “boss”. Consider the phrase “real boss”. Regardless of the meanings of the constituent words, the phrase itself can often be replaced with “the one with the real power”, or “the one who actually makes the decisions.” For example, “The king may have nominal power, but he’s really only a figurehead, his vizier is the real boss.”
Now, we still find something lacking in that the mice don’t actually make decisions, the people observing the mice do. However, if the people observing the mice care about doing good research, then decisions about what course of action to take in the future must take into account what happens with the mice. What happens with the mice provides evidence which forces the researchers to update their models, possibly changing the optimal course of action, or fail. The literal meaning “The mice provide evidence, forcing us to update our models, making us, in order to do our job correctly, change our decisions.” may be expressed metaphorically as “The mice make decisions on how to do our job correctly” or “The mice are the real boss.”
From the context of the article, in which he uses this as an argument for not coming up with certain specific goals before beginning research, this is likely what the author meant.
Well, except that the researchers could:
a) Ignore the evidence
b) Fudge or outright falsify the evidence (horribly unethical, but it happens)
c) Abandon the experiments and do something else
etc.
and deciding to do any of these things is influenced heavily by what your boss does (i.e. what rules and incentives exist in your organization).
I do get the point made by wylram in the other subthread (communicating to your boss that one cannot change reality by managerial fiat), and it’s a good point, I just don’t find that it’s conveyed well by the original quote (or even the source article). The key issue here, for me, is that despite the fact that “the mice” (but really more like “the laws of reality”) are what determine the outcome of the experiment, not your boss, that does not mean that said laws of reality, much less said mice, in any way supplant your boss as the agent who is in control of your career advancement, position in the company, etc. (Incidentally, that is why the vizier / figurehead analogy does not hold.)