It’s sometimes easy to forget that institutions often arise as solutions to problems.
For example:
• Journalism uncovers and spreads information that matters to people that would otherwise be hard for them to know.
• Education teaches people what they'll need to know that they won't easily learn on their own.
• Science increases our understanding of (and control over) reality.
• Civil Courts right wrongs between people.
• Finance (among other things) e...
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institutions
50 “Laws” of Everything
Parkinson's Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
Gates' Law: Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
Goodhart's Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (or, ...
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Tough Questions about Utopia
Some tough questions for you about utopia (along with my very tentative and very likely wrong guesses for answers):
If you were attempting to design a true utopia for ten million people on an obscure island deep out in the ocean, and you had total control over institutions and unlimited money, but you could NOT change human nature or human psychology then:(a) what would you hope people would spend their time doing in this utopia?(b) how would you incentivize people to actually spend their t...
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