4 ms·

What makes the average politician automatically dumber than the average AI startup or social media company decision-maker?

momirlan 3y ago
[flagged]
fallingknife 3y ago
Size of organization is correlated with tolerance of stupidity and level of competition is inversely correlated. Governments are the largest organizations and are monopolies. You get max level of stupidity as expected.
ekianjo 3y ago
Being a politician has an inverse correlation to competency
- kevingadd 3y ago
  Are you saying the least competent candidate is always the one who gets elected? Or just that only incompetent people become politicians? Those are both pretty strong assertions so I assume you mean something else and I'm just not seeing it.
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    > Are you saying the least competent candidate is always the one who gets elected? The skills to get elected rely on being about to lie to people and lie to yourself as much as possible and be a narcissist at the same time, so all of these factors make it VERY unlikely that they correlate with actual competency.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - x-complexity 3y ago
    > Are you saying the least competent candidate is always the one who gets elected? Or just that only incompetent people become politicians? The candidate that is most capable of being elected is the one that either: - Can garner the most votes - Can prevent other candidates from getting votes Nowhere in the above is technical competency a requirement to be elected. It may help, but its far down the list of "electable attributes".
    - rightbyte 3y ago
      Another way of putting it is that the hardest thing with being a (high level) politician is being elected. I am active in my county and if you breath and can be nice for 1h we will give you a position somewhere.
chongli 3y ago
Politicians are people-persons. They’re generally not technical people at all. It’s pretty rare for someone to be both a tech person and a people person. I have no idea why this is the case (other than stereotypes).
- kevingadd 3y ago
  I'll grant that politics is a field that attracts "people persons", but the OP originally said (paraphrasing, since it's gone and I don't remember the exact language they used) that politicians were all dumb, with the implication that we should let tech startups decide everything re: AI instead. What guarantees that the decision-makers at big companies like OpenAI are actually "smart techies" or even technical people at all? Doesn't being an executive or board member or high level decision maker actually attract people with the "soft skills" you need to reach those lofty heights? I see this assumption a lot - "politicians are all stupid/incompetent" and it's weird to see it taken on faith by some people (I don't get the feeling you're one of them)
- konschubert 3y ago
  It's a matter of focus. http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
langsoul-com 3y ago
Incentives. Politicians don't give a damn about being right, but rather to continue being elected.
- thinkerswell 3y ago
  Businesses don’t care about being right, but about making money.

momirlan 3y ago

[flagged]

fallingknife 3y ago

Size of organization is correlated with tolerance of stupidity and level of competition is inversely correlated. Governments are the largest organizations and are monopolies. You get max level of stupidity as expected.

ekianjo 3y ago

Being a politician has an inverse correlation to competency

kevingadd 3y ago
Are you saying the least competent candidate is always the one who gets elected? Or just that only incompetent people become politicians? Those are both pretty strong assertions so I assume you mean something else and I'm just not seeing it.
- ekianjo 3y ago
  > Are you saying the least competent candidate is always the one who gets elected? The skills to get elected rely on being about to lie to people and lie to yourself as much as possible and be a narcissist at the same time, so all of these factors make it VERY unlikely that they correlate with actual competency.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- x-complexity 3y ago
  > Are you saying the least competent candidate is always the one who gets elected? Or just that only incompetent people become politicians? The candidate that is most capable of being elected is the one that either: - Can garner the most votes - Can prevent other candidates from getting votes Nowhere in the above is technical competency a requirement to be elected. It may help, but its far down the list of "electable attributes".
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    Another way of putting it is that the hardest thing with being a (high level) politician is being elected. I am active in my county and if you breath and can be nice for 1h we will give you a position somewhere.

chongli 3y ago

Politicians are people-persons. They’re generally not technical people at all. It’s pretty rare for someone to be both a tech person and a people person. I have no idea why this is the case (other than stereotypes).

kevingadd 3y ago
I'll grant that politics is a field that attracts "people persons", but the OP originally said (paraphrasing, since it's gone and I don't remember the exact language they used) that politicians were all dumb, with the implication that we should let tech startups decide everything re: AI instead. What guarantees that the decision-makers at big companies like OpenAI are actually "smart techies" or even technical people at all? Doesn't being an executive or board member or high level decision maker actually attract people with the "soft skills" you need to reach those lofty heights? I see this assumption a lot - "politicians are all stupid/incompetent" and it's weird to see it taken on faith by some people (I don't get the feeling you're one of them)
konschubert 3y ago
It's a matter of focus. http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

langsoul-com 3y ago

Incentives. Politicians don't give a damn about being right, but rather to continue being elected.

thinkerswell 3y ago
Businesses don’t care about being right, but about making money.