4 ms·

Without fear, however, you don't get any kind of progress. Fear is powerful Disagree. Fear is not the only motivator, and it's a particularly bad one, because

by tremon 5y ago

Without fear, however, you don't get any kind of progress. Fear is powerful Disagree. Fear is not the only motivator, and it's a particularly bad one, because it spurs immediate action rather than exploration. Fear of sailing into the unknown is also what kept Europeans in the dark about the American continent for centuries. What "fear" motivated the construction of the LHC at CERN? Wasn't it fear that caused a lot of people to advocate loudly against turning it on and performing experiments with it? Overcoming fear drives progress (but it is by no means the only driver). Giving in to fear just leads to regression.

mschuster91 5y ago
> Disagree. Fear is not the only motivator, and it's a particularly bad one, because it spurs immediate action rather than exploration. For many problems, the longer you let them sit around the worse they become. Linearly accelerating problems, yeah, you can usually get by with sitting them out. But exponentially accelerating problems (climate change, infectious agents, consumer debt) require immediate and harsh response, otherwise they become so much more difficult to resolve. The key issue is that most people lack the basic education to understand exponential functions, even after two years of a pandemic. > What "fear" motivated the construction of the LHC at CERN? None. > Wasn't it fear that caused a lot of people to advocate loudly against turning it on and performing experiments? Indeed, but that one was a "false equivalency" media issue. Crackpots got a lot of media presence despite their claims being outright invalid from the start or being absolute niche opinions, simply because their unfounded fear brought in a lot of clicks from an ignorant and uneducated public. Coincidentally or not, we have seen the same media issues in the COVID crisis, particularly with Fox "News"/OAN/"News"max in the US or the Axel Springer/Murdoch tabloids in Europe.

by tremon 5y ago

mschuster91 5y ago

> Disagree. Fear is not the only motivator, and it's a particularly bad one, because it spurs immediate action rather than exploration. For many problems, the longer you let them sit around the worse they become. Linearly accelerating problems, yeah, you can usually get by with sitting them out. But exponentially accelerating problems (climate change, infectious agents, consumer debt) require immediate and harsh response, otherwise they become so much more difficult to resolve. The key issue is that most people lack the basic education to understand exponential functions, even after two years of a pandemic. > What "fear" motivated the construction of the LHC at CERN? None. > Wasn't it fear that caused a lot of people to advocate loudly against turning it on and performing experiments? Indeed, but that one was a "false equivalency" media issue. Crackpots got a lot of media presence despite their claims being outright invalid from the start or being absolute niche opinions, simply because their unfounded fear brought in a lot of clicks from an ignorant and uneducated public. Coincidentally or not, we have seen the same media issues in the COVID crisis, particularly with Fox "News"/OAN/"News"max in the US or the Axel Springer/Murdoch tabloids in Europe.