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"Do you not know, my son, with how very little wisdom the world is governed?" Written by Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, to his son, a delega
by rags2riches 4y ago
"Do you not know, my son, with how very little wisdom the world is governed?"
Written by Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, to his son, a delegate to the negotiations that would lead to the Peace of Westphalia, who worried about his ability to hold his own amidst experienced and eminent statesmen and diplomats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Oxenstierna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_Oxenstierna
- ddhhyy 4y agoWritten in 1648, which gives you a sense for how long this has been the case.
- tootie 4y agoThis is almost exactly what I tell my younger folks who are concerned they're not authoritative enough to share an opinion or lead a project. I cured my Imposter Syndrome not by gaining confidence but realizing that everyone else was just guessing too. My guesses were at least as good as theirs.
- 6510 4y agoMy version was more general: I'm in a race with people convinced they cant win. After that realization even a tiny amount of effort put me miles ahead. Again and again I found situations screaming: This is where others would give up. You shouldn't be satisfied with guesses as good as the self proclaimed imposters. Your effort should further convince them they are!
- toxik 4y agoBe that as it may, the point in our bureaucracies is precisely to make sure that the decisions we make are based on what we learned over the years and not what some “10x” SWE is throwing a hissy fit about in the daily standup.
- sam0x17 4y agobut if he's a 10x then his 5 years of experience is actually 50 years!!! :O
- conviencefee999 4y agoYeah jumping ship to a new company every 2 years is really valuable.
- cudgy 4y agoAnd they master the code at the new company in a few days!
- dinosaurdynasty 4y agoConsidering that's how people tend to get raises... he might be very smart for doing that!
- sam0x17 4y ago2.5 years was the industry average like 5 years ago. Probably shorter now
- WalterBright 4y agoWhy do we keep getting subjected to rent control, then, which never works?
- inkywatcher 4y agoPlease demonstrate that it "never" works.
- WalterBright 4y agoCan't prove a negative. But you can show a counterexample.
- inkywatcher 4y ago[flagged]
- WalterBright 4y agoYet here you are arguing :-)
- piva00 4y agoWhat is your definition of rent control working? There are some studies showing that rent control does work to minimise displacement of tenants [1] and that tenants seek more repairs [2], even more of lower income classes. If you define as achieving market efficiency, maybe that's not the objective. It's like unionising, it may make companies less market-efficient by giving more power and control to the workers. Rent control affects landlords by giving more power to tenants. Building more houses, etc., is an orthogonal issue to rent control. [1] http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkbrueck/course%20readings/gyourko%20and%20linneman2.pdf http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkbrueck/course%20readings/gyourk... [2] https://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/RentControlMyths-2pger_08-13-19b.pdf https://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/RentControlMy...
- WalterBright 4y ago
- bobthepanda 4y agoI wouldn’t go so strong as this. The civil service is mostly designed to provide some level of basic stability and functioning so that no matter what flavor of the month politician gets elected you still get your trash picked up, and other services. (If politicians directly target something, though, all bets are off.)
- afarrell 4y agoThank you for translating the analogy.
- doorman2 4y agoThis may have been more true during the times of nobility. With modern democracies and market economies, we at least try to have some form of meritocracy. Obviously, we fall short in a lot of ways, but the goal is to bring to best to the fore.
- klelatti 4y agoTwo words: Liz Truss
- SergeAx 4y agoLiz Truss fall the victim of higher level party struggle and intrigue, not because she was dumb.
- klelatti 4y agoI'm interested why you say this. The perception in the UK is absolutely that she was not up the job and was removed for that reason.
- SergeAx 4y agoWell, you never get that high in politics if you don't have some traits for that, or you are pushed there by others on purpose. Either way it means she fell victim to intrigue - by getting ousted from PM position or by being installed there on the first place.
- flarg 4y agoAll it proves is that she was good at climbing the greasy pole. She was and remains as thick as two short planks.
- nly 4y agoHer ideas weren't necessarily bad, or her logic flawed, but her execution was bloody terrible. Growth is exactly what the UK economy needs and she recognised that. Now all we're going to get is austerity, higher taxes and misery under Rishi
- marsven_422 4y ago
- hnarn 4y agoI think it’s pretty safe to assume this quote is apocryphal, but it’s a good quote nonetheless. Swedish historian Dick Harrison wrote about it briefly here: https://www.svd.se/a/a23oL/vem-myntade-uttrycket-an-nescis https://www.svd.se/a/a23oL/vem-myntade-uttrycket-an-nescis