The name Agile* is connected to a concept I want to promote in my work as a geoscientist: agile interpretation. What the heck is agile interpretation?

It's borrowed, or stolen if you prefer, from the agile software development philosophy. The idea is that you take an idea or strategy and, above all, stick to it. It drives everything that happens next. Then you do something, anything. This is anti-perfectionist and quite counter to many people's intuition (including mine). Then you iterate, as quickly as possible.

This might sound obvious, but it's not how most projects work. Most projects, of almost any kind, build a plan, preferably with a Gantt chart, then slowly but surely execute that plan, then... fail. Or if they don't fail, they at least are late and over-budget. This is not agile.

Unless you're building a nuclear reactor, I think it might be wiser to start small but bold, do good things quickly, fail often, and become adaptable and resilient. This is agile.