A lot of the principles they give are of the in dying you shall die variety of errors. Learning is counterintuitive. There are a lot of times in learning where

A lot of the principles they give are of the in dying you shall die variety of errors. Learning is counterintuitive. There are a lot of times in learning where getting what you want means intentionally getting what you don't want. As you've said, though with different words, their second principle doesn't respect that. It is near-term thinking masquerading as a long-term concept; myopia, not wisdom. At the root of the error in short term thinking is pride. You think you know, but you don't know - not as you ought to know. So you stay trapped in a local minima. That local minima comes with unforced error. Which means a potential stochastic chance for extinction. Geometric probability distributions drives this to certainty. So in dying you die forever. Notice - nature doesn't optimize for longevity. Thus, it gains it. The biospheres actual version of what they are trying to get at is absurdly different. Remember I said learning was counterintuitive? The actual solution was to "eat shit" and "die". If they were really taking advice from permaculture the idea of eating our own shit would have taken center stage. Manure isn't exactly an unfamiliar concept in that world. It is foundational. Literally, not figuratively, but literally. It is the dirt.