In science news today, "why people don't learn from Jane Jacobs."

In "Children Learn by Monkey See, Monkey Do. Chimps Don't," the New York Times reports on experiments that have discovered that "Learning by imitation" is likely to be hardwired into humans, but that younger chimps are better able at self-directed experimentation than young humans.

Photo: Victoria Horner. Yoyo using a stick at the top and front of a black box, above, to retrieve candy inside after seeing a human do so. But seeing the same prize inside a clear box, top, Umugezi figured out the fastest way to the candy.

I think there's something here. After all, it's only been about 45 years since Death and Life of Great American Cities has been published, and about 15 years or so since "urban renewal" programs have been pretty much discredited, yet "big, "break the bank" projects, often oriented to attracting suburbanites downtown are still the primary economic development model pursued most often by cities.

And this is reflected in the findings both in Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers and The Structure of Scientific Revolution by Kuhn. People have a hard time changing their ways.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It...makes you think that after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded... Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it. -Walter Bagehot, Physics and Politics

Granted change is difficult (see Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution) but we can't afford to keep spending billions of dollars for middling successes. You'd think as we get older that we'd be better at learning.

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization