Experiments
EX-002
The Numbering Scheme That Was Abandoned After Nine Days
Readable to the studio, opaque to everyone else
Result
Abandoned
A numbering scheme encoding collection, batch, and position was tried for nine days. It was abandoned because nobody outside the studio could read it, and the studio did not need it.
The Question
Should a piece's number carry information, or should it only identify?
Method
Nine days of assigning numbers under the encoded scheme in parallel with the plain sequential one, then asking four people outside the studio to say what each number meant.
Result
None of the four could read the encoded number. Two produced confident wrong answers, which is worse than not reading it at all.
Meanwhile the studio, which could read it, never once needed to — every question it might have answered was already answered faster by looking the piece up.
| Reader | Could decode | Confident but wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Outside, 1 | No | Yes |
| Outside, 2 | No | Yes |
| Outside, 3 | No | No |
| Outside, 4 | No | No |
Verdict
Abandoned. Numbers identify; the record carries meaning.
“A number that can be misread is worse than one that says nothing.”
Closing note, day nine
The scheme worked exactly as designed. It was abandoned because working as designed turned out not to be worth anything, which is a result an experiment can only produce by being run.
Method
- Hypothesis
- An encoded number is more useful than a plain one.
- Method
- Nine days of parallel assignment, then four outside readers.
- Sample
- Four readers. Small, and unanimous.
- Result
- Zero of four decoded it; two guessed wrongly with confidence.
- Verdict
- Abandoned. Sequential numbering retained.