Several years ago, I presented the progress report for one of my research projects in front of an evaluation committee, set up by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The committee people were from various background and institutions, but it was the head of the committee whom I remember most vividly. Perhaps he was frustrated with the slow progress or unsatisfying results from the other researchers before me. Perhaps he was just having a bad hair day, or perhaps he thought his role in the evaluation committee was akin to being an American Idol judge. Whatever his reasons were, he was bordering on being rude and unprofessional. But that isn’t what I want to talk about; it was something he said to me during my presentation.

During my slide presentation, I showed the committee one of my results. It was a conceptual diagram of how a “plug-and-play” feature could be developed for agricultural models. The head of the committee was obviously unimpressed by my colourful diagram. He further remarked that my conceptual model was, well, blindingly obvious. Which now brings me to the issue of ”hindsight knowledge”.