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I’m a big fan of thinking about casual evaluation. As I think Piaget would agree, humans are natural experimentation engines. We actively continue to investigate the external world to better learn about it. Sometimes this requires understanding past lessons from others who have conducted similar experiments but sometimes we can depend on our natural inclinations and emergent pressures.
It’s also interesting to compare casual evaluation with experimentation of a more rigorous times. I was struck by this headline, 4 People, 80 Martinis while reading through the New York Times. This ‘tasting’ represents a kind of casual experiment that we all watch with mainstream fascination. It’s a simple setup, a group of experts (or not), some food, some drink, and who likes what the best. Sure there is some explanation from expert palates, usually with a mouthful of flowery language and overly rich adjectives. Ultimately however it comes down to a simple experiment testing food and drink with a fairly natural apparatus, tongue and taste buds.
