{"id":532,"date":"2018-07-18T20:19:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T20:19:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/appliedresearch.us\/blog\/?page_id=532"},"modified":"2018-12-30T16:58:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T16:58:50","slug":"about-arms-for-the-rest-of-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sffreeman.com\/ARMs\/about-arms-for-the-rest-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

About ARMs<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> for the Rest of Us\u00a0<\/h1>\n

Unless you\u2019ve had an exceptional teacher at some point, research typically means looking something up on Wikipedia; if you\u2019re highly motivated, clicking on a link or two. A tiny percentage might buy or borrow a book; the odd egghead might even read it. But even at its best, \u201cresearch\u201d as such leaves you vulnerable to the biases of institutions shaping the media and misrepresentations of experts with something to sell.<\/p>\n

Doctoral level research is actually the opposite of placing one\u2019s faith \u2013 and fate! \u2013 in such sources. Rather, it entails investigation to determine independently whether what purported experts and authoritative sources claim is true: i.e., to observe directly and think for yourself.<\/p>\n

Applied science is the turbine powering today\u2019s unprecedented scale, scope and rate of change. The modern world depends on it; change begets change with such tenacity that without the ability to adapt and act opportunistically provided by research applications, the entire edifice would collapse within weeks. But the process is poorly understood and narrowly focused, accessible strictly to a technocratic elite, their student supplicants and institutional overlords. This mass ignorance impedes opportunity, torpefies public debate, and cripples decision-making at every level.<\/p>\n

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For decades I\u2019ve been affiliated with Ivy and Ivyish<\/em> institutions at the center of this turbine. These institutions have earned their reputation of excellence with rigorous research, thinking and analysis that cuts to the core. But they\u2019ve also earned their reputation of elitism, largely oblivious to the needs of average people and average organizations, even their own staff and students; in short to all but their own projects, internal chess games and the few mega-institutions that fuel the turbine and can make or break tenured careers.<\/p>\n

In 2016, two colleagues and I left the University of Pennsylvania aiming towards a broader brand of research and education than proved possible at Penn. ARMs for the Rest of Us<\/em> is the public projection of Applied Research Method courses (ARMs) I\u2019ve developed for a new Jefferson University program designed to:<\/p>\n