# Seamanship, Navigation, Piloting, Metis Techne **URL:** \ **Category:** Professional Mariner Forum\ **Created:** [May 21, 2020, 10:58am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491 "2020-05-21T10:58:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 10:58am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/1 "2020-05-21T10:58:34Z")
From Seeing Like a State by James C Sott. > **[Seeing%20Like%20a%20State%20-%20James%20C.%20Scott.pdf](https://libcom.org/files/Seeing%20Like%20a%20State%20-%20James%20C.%20Scott.pdf)** > > 8.99 MB ![Seeing_Like_a_State](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/2X/7/703aaae9ec4cab5a76767f163f28105ae2cd216c.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/2X/c/c761a664ed91383176462ba44870d1eff41a508d.png) ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 11:08am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/2 "2020-05-21T11:08:28Z")
![Metis](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/2X/7/7702f209eb8dc164a01e80c08e5109db0c5a47d0.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/2X/8/853bc77c46e15f927d29f1bea559ea4e66d84381.png) ---
**Author:** ![freighterman1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/freighterman1/32/11176_2.png) [@freighterman1](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/freighterman1)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/3 "2020-05-24T15:56:52Z")
The author should have chosen a different word for the ineffable skill he is referring to. His term “Metis” is, to my mind, too close to to the word **Métis**. The Métis are a Canadian people, the fusion of First Nations and French trappers. A little known group, outside of Canada, but with a history closely associated with canoe and boat travel on rivers and lakes, which can lead to confusion given Sott’s thesis. ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/4 "2020-05-24T16:53:07Z")
The Greek word metis is far too good of a word to give up. Aristotle no less singles out navigation (and medicine) as an activity that requires it for superior performance. > **[Mêtis: Cunning Intelligence in Greek Thought](https://socialecologies.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/metis-cunning-intelligence-in-greek-thought/)** > > In Hesiod’s Theogony we attain an informative and detailed description of how Metis came to be the first consort of the Olympian god Zeus and the mother of the goddess Athena: “Zeus, king of … > Aristotle singled out navigation and medicine as two activities in which the practical wisdom of long experience is indispensable to superior performance. They were mētis-laden activities in which responsiveness, improvisation, and skillful, successive approximations were required. I also thought that was interesting that the author, Scott, mentions that at sea navigation takes less skill because chart work abstracts away most of the real world to make it easier. ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2020, 11:42am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/5 "2020-05-27T11:42:50Z")
6 posts were split to a new topic: [Exxon Valdez Grounding #2](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/exxon-valdez-grounding-2/55567) ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/10 "2020-05-25T11:17:03Z")
The term Col John Boyd used that is similar is the borrowed German word Fingerspitzengefühl the literal meaning is finger tip feel. > **[Fingerspitzengefühl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerspitzengef%C3%BChl)** > > Fingerspitzengefühl \[ˈfɪŋɐˌʃpɪtsənɡəˌfyːl\] is a German term, literally meaning "finger tips feeling" and meaning intuitive flair or instinct, which has been adopted by the English language as a loanword. It describes a great situational awareness, and the ability to respond most appropriately and tactfully. It can also be applied to diplomats, bearers of bad news, or to describe a superior ability to respond to an escalated situation. The term is sometimes used to describe the instinctive play of... In the same neighborhood is the french word Coup d’œil > **[Coup d'œil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_d'%C5%93il)** > > Coup d'œil (or coup d'oeil; French pronunciation: ​\[ku dœj\]) is a term taken from French, that more or less corresponds to the words glimpse or glance in English. The literal meaning is "stroke of \[the\] eye". > It is mostly used (in English) in a military context, where the coup d'œil refers to the ability to discern at one glance the tactical advantages and disadvantages of the terrain. For example, the famous king Frederick the Great of Prussia in his 1753 "Particular Instructions" devotes spe... > ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/12 "2020-05-25T14:07:44Z")
> [@Kennebec\_Captain](#): > > Coup d’œil From Farwell’s ![ferry1](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/2X/5/50043d0cbfac3509aa05c38dfccb46f8a378fa13.png) ![ferry2](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/gcaptain_maritime_forum/original/2X/2/2b0156bdd58c268a477dfdaa6f47abbebca2a9cd.png) ---
**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/seamanship-navigation-piloting-metis-techne/55491/13 "2020-07-13T20:23:43Z")
> **[Why Tacit Knowledge is More Important Than Deliberate Practice](https://commoncog.com/tacit-knowledge-is-a-real-thing/)** > > What tacit knowledge is, and why it is the most interesting topic in the study of expertise today. Three parts - From part three: > 1. **Relational tacit knowledge** — Knowledge that is tacit because of the way people relate to each other. Sometimes people do not make their knowledge explicit because they do not know how to do so, other times, they do not make their knowledge explicit because they do not want to do so. > 2. **Somatic tacit knowledge** — Knowledge that is tacit because it has to do with the human body. Think of executing a tennis backhand, playing a guitar, or riding a bicycle. This knowledge is tacit because it has to do with the embodied nature of the skill involved. > 3. **Collective tacit knowledge** — Knowledge that is tacit because it is embedded in our social environment, and we do not know how to make it explicit in a way that doesn’t involve socialising.