Policy comes from limited individuals with limited information. Policy mandates large, complex solutions to large, complex problems. The problem lies in that mismatch.
Author: James Walpole
James Walpole is a writer, startup marketer, intellectual explorer, and perpetual apprentice. He opted out of college to join the Praxis startup apprenticeship program and currently manages marketing and communications at bitcoin payment technology company BitPay. He writes daily at jameswalpole.com.
Why Policymaking Won’t Work for Complex Societies (and Why Principles Will) – Part 1
You are not an expert. Even the experts know they are not experts. They will spend their entire lives just grappling with one sub-facet of one of these facets, and their work still won’t be done. To claim to empirically know how to ensure the best outcome for everyone in any issue is folly. Policymaking (the practical utilitarianism used in most political thinking) is an unscalable way to make decisions.
All Companies Die; Not All Companies Really Live
What most people don’t tend to accept is that all companies eventually do die – even the big ones. Walmart will one day cease to exist. Even Amazon.com will one day go the way of the dodo. It’s happened before, and it will happen again. Your company may last for a long time if you run it right, but you cannot hope for immortality. That wish won’t be granted.
How Public Shaming Makes Real Change Harder
As long as we jump straight to public shaming and enemy-labelling, most people won’t have the internal fortitude to take the necessary steps to change. Public shaming should be a last resort when all hope of change is lost.
How Nerds Won the Culture
In the late 20th century, nerds were the first to adopt computers and video games. They loved fantasy and sci-fi first. They created subcultures based on interest and imagination, and they suffered for it through social mockery and social exclusion. Of course, the nerds were mostly right.
The Only Way to Delight People
Remember the last time you were delighted – really beaming with delight? It probably happened when someone of something surprised your expectations in a good way.
How To Use Your Fragile Ego To Do Amazing Things
Young people have incredibly fragile egos. OK, you’re right. Everyone under the age of 80 has fragile egos. We want to be seen as good, powerful, efficient, wise, attractive, hardworking, cool, and – of course – not concerned in the least with how other people think of us.
How the Work Week Encourages Short-Term Thinking
Problems can’t be left behind in one week. They will follow us to the next. This is surprising to some people, but it shouldn’t be. By dividing our lives into these discrete chunks called “work-weeks”, we can too easily shuffle away “the old units” down the memory hole.
A Purely Selfish Reason to Value the Lives of Others
You have your own universe of constructed thought and emotion and memory and perspective and wisdom which no one else can ever see the way you do. Everyone else has – is – that same universe of experiences. Ephemeral, yes, but also irreplaceable.
“Dancing Like No One’s Watching” Takes Hard Work
You can’t just be messing around. The “let it all hang out” way can be born out of a rejection of social pressure (admirable), but it isn’t born out of a love for dancing itself. It’s also self-conscious in its own way – by setting out to dance in spite of people watching, you may become all too aware of them.