Shanahan is running the show like a wise man, in the sense that a wise person knows that he knows very little.
Socrates, the Great greek philosopher, taught that only by asking questions can one truly learn. Answering questions is not as important as finding questions that need answering.
Looking back at Burke's reign, I realize that Burke is a very smart man, but he is not empirical in his methodology. He has many answers, but doesn't usually look to find questions. So he knows what he knows, and he feels it's enough to win with.
When Burke hired new personnel, he did so by accessing his network of people and getting the best-and-brightest people that matched his ideology. And there's nothing wrong with that if you happen to have the methodology that will win, (and Lord knows it was at least better than having no plan at all...).
But with Shanahan, we are looking for questions. That's exciting! Because now we are finding people that want to delve into the unknown. These new stats guys, like Dubas, Charron, etc., are all question-seekers. They're panning for questions in the sands of data.
It's going to yield answers along the way, but better yet, we will (organizationally) become wiser by knowing more questions exist. We're lightyears ahead of Burke's ideology now. We're expanding our knowledge by realizing that we don't know enough to win. So we learn.
It's a good, bright future we have ahead of us.
External hires are a breath of fresh air
