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It's extremely easy to fake. I sell you a backrub for 10.000 dollars and after that I buy one from you for 10.000 dollars and we've now in 10 minutes boosted ou

by ggreer 12y ago

It's extremely easy to fake. I sell you a backrub for 10.000 dollars and after that I buy one from you for 10.000 dollars and we've now in 10 minutes boosted our GDP with 20.000 dollars. I didn't want to sidetrack my comment by getting into PPP and other adjustments[1], but suffice it to say that economists have been aware of these issues for over a century. We are too focused on optimizing, when a lot of what it means to be a human are things that shouldn't be optimized. And secondly, long periods without productivity may actually be the foundation of later quality. And you can't optimize these unproductive periods. Even if your hypothesis is true (which I doubt), it still makes sense to measure and improve leisure. I think the old quote from Steven Levy's Hackers[2] is worth remembering: At one point in the discussion, Sussman told Minsky that he was using a certain randomizing technique in his program because he didn't want the machine to have any preconceived notions. Minsky said, "Well, it has them, it's just that you don't know what they are." It was the most profound thing Gerry Sussman had ever heard. And Minsky continued, telling him that the world is built a certain way, and the most important thing we can do with the world is avoid randomness, and figure out ways by which things can be planned. Wisdom like this has its effect on seventeen-year-old freshmen, and from then on Sussman was hooked. Our time on this planet is short, and there are no do-overs. There are certainly diminishing returns to improving aspects of one's life, but giving little thought to them or leaving things to chance is a great way to ensure we don't make the most of it. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer...

deleted 12y ago
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xg15 12y ago
Maybe instead of saying "optimizing is bad", a better idea is to remember that you can't just "optimize". You always optimize for something: You're trying to bring a certain quality into an extreme, usually by willingly trading it off against other qualities - e.g. free time against a higher income. Therefore, optimisation isn't bad, but you should always keep in mind what you're optimizing for, as you usually can't optimize everything at the same time. If you have two qualities that are mutually exclusive but both important to you, you obviously wouldn't want to optimize either of them - you'd try to find a balance between them instead.
jodrellblank 12y ago
Gosh, yes. What if you died having not measured, optimized, and made the most of your leisure. How awfully guilty and ashamed you can presently imagine your future dead self would feel if you picture dead-you actually alive in an afterlife somewhere.
wodenokoto 12y ago
But PPP is also extremely easy to fake. Let's say all deers get sick and the price of deer meet rises substantially. Is the living standards of the swedes now falling compared to the danes who do not consume deer meet? Or do the swedes just switch the deer meet for some other kind and enjoy the same standard of living as always? My iphone has many many times the computing power of my old (but back then high-end) Nokia phone, but cost me twice as much. Am I now poorer in PPP because a good cellphone is more expensive or am I richer because my cellphone is faster? PPP is extremely easy to fake. The point of the post is that (A) the obsession with optimizing will harm us and (B) most optimization is done for the sake of optimization.

by ggreer 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

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xg15 12y ago

Maybe instead of saying "optimizing is bad", a better idea is to remember that you can't just "optimize". You always optimize for something: You're trying to bring a certain quality into an extreme, usually by willingly trading it off against other qualities - e.g. free time against a higher income. Therefore, optimisation isn't bad, but you should always keep in mind what you're optimizing for, as you usually can't optimize everything at the same time. If you have two qualities that are mutually exclusive but both important to you, you obviously wouldn't want to optimize either of them - you'd try to find a balance between them instead.

jodrellblank 12y ago

Gosh, yes. What if you died having not measured, optimized, and made the most of your leisure. How awfully guilty and ashamed you can presently imagine your future dead self would feel if you picture dead-you actually alive in an afterlife somewhere.

wodenokoto 12y ago

But PPP is also extremely easy to fake. Let's say all deers get sick and the price of deer meet rises substantially. Is the living standards of the swedes now falling compared to the danes who do not consume deer meet? Or do the swedes just switch the deer meet for some other kind and enjoy the same standard of living as always? My iphone has many many times the computing power of my old (but back then high-end) Nokia phone, but cost me twice as much. Am I now poorer in PPP because a good cellphone is more expensive or am I richer because my cellphone is faster? PPP is extremely easy to fake. The point of the post is that (A) the obsession with optimizing will harm us and (B) most optimization is done for the sake of optimization.