I think one of the things we need, before starting any work, is to ask ourselves, and seriously look for the answer to, this question:
Has someone done this before, so that I can use their experience, or am I the first to do it?
In papers this question is called a “literature review”, in business it goes by various names such as “knowing the competitors”, and in most design work (#systems_design, policy writing, policymaking, governance and so on) it is known as “benchmarking”. One benefit is that we can find the experiences that exist on the particular subject we are asking about and, instead of starting from the first step, begin from the tenth, so we do not live through ninety-nine of our predecessors’ mistakes and instead commit the hundredth!
Stories, films and novels also help, I think, to see other lives and other times in a short span, or to go through those decision-making situations, and to run a simulation for ourselves from the different situations that come up in the characters’ lives.
There is a big danger in benchmarking that has to be taken seriously. First we need to turn to section 59 of Book Five of Rumi’s Masnavi:
If you thought I would put the text of section 59, Book Five of the Masnavi here, go and repent!
Sometimes, the existence of a good or very good plan for the situation we find desirable and are asking about makes us fail to see the past of that plan and the dangers and considerations that were needed for that system to rise. That is, the great, exciting pleasure of it makes us fail to see the gourd in designs and benchmarks, which does serious damage to the spirit and body of the design and the designer.
When borrowing a pattern, one must pay great attention to the element of time and the preconditions; so let us always remember, first:
Let us see the gourd in design
and second:
What one mother does in nine months, nine mothers cannot do in one month
Finally, one can note this passage:
… Of course a plan has its own character; it must fit the country’s geographical, historical and cultural features. One cannot imitate other countries’ plans; a plan is not an imitation. Saying that such-and-such a country reached development this way, so we should go this way too, is wrong. The country’s resources, stock, abilities and conditions must be calculated and the path chosen. A plan should not be purely economic. In the plan, culture, security, spirituality and ethics must certainly be seen. Economic growth alone should not be relied on; it should be within the framework of the macro policies I mentioned. The Leader of the Revolution, remarks in a meeting with government officials, 15 Mordad 1382 (August 2003)