Exercises: Imported Error

Difficulty Guide: - ⭐ Foundational | ⭐⭐ Intermediate | ⭐⭐⭐ Challenging | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced/Research

Part A: Conceptual Understanding ⭐

A.1. Define "imported error" and explain how it differs from the other entry mechanisms (authority cascade, unfalsifiability, etc.).

A.2. What is "prestige transfer"? Why does it make imported errors more persistent than homegrown ones?

A.3. Explain the difference between "surface similarity" and "deep similarity" in analogical reasoning.

A.4. What is "physics envy"? Why does it motivate borrowing for legitimacy rather than insight?

A.5. The chapter distinguishes between productive borrowing and imported error. State the key difference and give one example of each.

A.6. List the five stages of the imported error mechanism. At which stage does the borrowing cross from productive to constraining?

Part B: Applied Analysis ⭐⭐

B.1. Apply the Five-Question Mapping Test to a borrowed concept in your field. Document each question and your answer.

B.2. Apply the "strip test" to a concept borrowed by your field: describe the phenomenon using only your field's native vocabulary, without borrowed terms. What is lost? What is gained?

B.3. Compare the education-factory import with the management-military import. What structural features do they share? What makes each import particularly persistent?

B.4. The chapter identifies several "Active Right Now" imported errors. Choose one and perform a structural mapping analysis. Where does the analogy hold? Where does it break?

B.5. Identify a case where your field has exported concepts to another field. Did the export produce productive borrowing or imported error in the receiving field?

Part C: Research Design Challenges ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

C.1. Design a cross-disciplinary review process for your field: how would you structure input from experts in the source disciplines to evaluate whether borrowed concepts are being used appropriately?

C.2. Propose an alternative organizational metaphor for either education or management that doesn't derive from factory/military models. What institutional changes would this alternative metaphor imply?

Part D: Synthesis & Critical Thinking ⭐⭐⭐

D.1. The chapter argues that the most dangerous imports are ones that feel like progress. Apply this insight to a current trend in your field. Is a currently popular borrowing from another field productive or constraining?

D.2. Is ALL knowledge ultimately analogical? If so, can imported error ever be fully eliminated, or is it an inherent cost of cross-domain thinking?

D.3. The Part I summary lists seven entry mechanisms. Rank them by which is most active in your field. Justify your ranking.

D.4. How does imported error interact with the other six failure modes? Trace the interactions for a specific case.

Part M: Mixed Practice (Interleaved) ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

M.1. (From Chapter 7) How do root metaphors (anchoring) and imported metaphors (imported error) reinforce each other? Trace this interaction in medicine (body-as-machine + healthcare-as-engineering).

M.2. (From Chapter 5) The business success literature suffers from survivorship bias (Ch.5) AND imported error (borrowing military/physics frameworks for business). How do these two failure modes interact?

M.3. (From Chapter 3) Can an imported concept become unfalsifiable in the target domain even if it was falsifiable in the source domain? Give an example.

M.4. (Integration — Part I Capstone) Complete your Epistemic Audit's Part I assessment. You now have eight diagnostic lenses. Write a 500-word summary of which failure modes are most active in your field and how they interact.

Part E: Research & Extension ⭐⭐⭐⭐

E.1. Read Mirowski's More Heat Than Light (or a summary). Write a 1,500-word analysis of the economics-physics borrowing using the chapter's five-stage mechanism.

E.2. Research an imported error not discussed in this chapter. Document the borrowing, the structural mapping, the breakdowns, and the persistence. Write a 1,500-word case study.

Solutions

Selected solutions in appendices/answers-to-selected.md.