If you analyze smartphone adoption using historical data from 1998 (when they didn't exist), the scientific method would predict they would never be adopted, because there was zero usage, yet this prediction would be completely wrong because it violates Aristotle's principle that the scientific method cannot apply to domains where things can be other than they are.
factualpending
Speaker
Roger MartinEvidence Quote
“if you use the scientific method to understand how people interact with technology right you will demonstrate to yourself that this could never exist because you've crunched all the data how much do people use smartphones not at all right because they don't exist”
Created: 8/10/2026, 11:30:31 PM
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