4 ms·
Ostensibly about trains, but I think the author's thesis may be a broader point about oversimplification and underestimation. I call it design arrogance. It's
by Gunax 5y ago
Ostensibly about trains, but I think the author's thesis may be a broader point about oversimplification and underestimation.
I call it design arrogance. It's when you think 'this is so poorly done, whoever made this was an idiot!'. But in reality, you just don't understand some non-obvious detail that lies underneath.
This is also a parallel to democracy--for all of our fist-rattling about politicians, sometimes they really do know what's best--that is their job afterall. The public is easily duped.
- tdeck 5y ago> sometimes they really do know what's best--that is their job afterall. not: That's the expert's job, not the politician's. A politician's job is to secure and maintain enough support from critical stakeholders so that they can stay in power. Depending on how the society is organized, that might mean making many people happy with successful public policies, or only a few people happy in the army command, megadonor class, central committee, etc...
- h2odragon 5y agoI would say the politician's job is finding workable compromises between conflicting peoples and agendas. A technician of the polis . Rulers need power so they won't need to compromise.
- mdp2021 5y agoSorry but I feel it important to correct one detail: -- experts are the ones supposed to be reliable about the outcomes¹; politicians should be the ones reliable about the weighs to choose as multipliers to said outcomes in decision. How good one is at one's job, it still depends on the individual. -- ¹That's not exactly «knowing what's best». Experts are often biased in a field. To the doctor it may easily be "not to overcrowd the hospital", to the economist "not to undercrowd the commercial areas".
- tdeck 5y agoOops meant to write "nit" but my phone didn't think that was a likely word.
- mdp2021 5y ago> sometimes they really do know what's best--that is their job afterall In order for somebody to know what is "best", they must have the information, the processing skills and intellectual maturity, and a definition of """best""" which, non-trivially, leans towards objective, collective and universal goals instead of subjective, particular and contingent ones. Until the times in which carrers will have ceased being a priority by necessity, it would not really change much if you wrote that in the job description.