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Groups never admit failure

nav.al

51–60 of 370 posts

Re: Groups never admit failure

#51
This article reads like an anecdotal rant.

> Groups never admit failure.

> I’m hard pressed to find examples in history of large groups that said, “We thought A, but the answer’s actually B.”

First statement does not follow from the second. The rest of the article is even worse in its sudden jumps to conclusions.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#52

This article reads like an anecdotal rant. > Groups never admit failure. > I’m hard pressed to find examples in history of large groups that said, “We thought A, but the answer’s actually B.” First statement does not follow from the second. The rest of the article is even worse in its sudden jumps to conclusions.

[deleted]

Re: Groups never admit failure

#53
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to like heroin as well. What is your point?

What's your point? People do things they like. You can't stop them.

The author states the best way to “change the world to a better place” is to work at a for-profit, which is reductive and ignores the purpose of the business.

In many cases selling heroin doesn’t make the world a better place.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#54
It took a lot of effort, but Japan's Meiji Era civil war was a big one.

The Samurai Class said: "This system is not good, and look over there, battleships from Western Nations are on our shore. Time to modernize and industrialize, and time to retire the Samurai system".

Of course, the other half of the Samurai argued otherwise and thus the civil war started. Turns out that the side that chose guns and industrialization won.

----------

Arguably, every revolution and civil war was basically a group deciding that the old way was bad and that some new way was better. But the Meiji Restoration is perhaps the most striking example in the past 200 years.

Yes, the "schism" happened as per the blogpost. But the schism was fixed and Japan was reunited, fighting as a united front in the Russo-Japanese war... proving that Japan had in fact become a modern world power.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#55

I can’t agree more with this post. This brings to mind some Milton Friedman quotes: * Governments never learn. Only people learn. * One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. * He moves fastest who moves alone. * Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else’s resources as carefully as he uses his own… *…

But governments have improved, and improved radically over the years. And the advantages of small groups over individuals are so comprehensive they have been a primary source of evolutionary progress in humans.

I'm not sure Friedman knew what he was talking about.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#56
> A group will never admit they were wrong. A group will never admit, “We made a mistake,” because a group that tries to change its mind falls apart. I’m hard pressed to find examples in history of large groups that said, “We thought A, but the answer’s actually B.”

Just because the author can't think of an example doesn't make it true.

In fact groups of people, typically businesses, admit failure all the time. And it doesn't follow that this causes a "schism"

Isn't Y-Combinator all about failing fast and pivots? Funny to see such a silly notion here of all places.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#57
> Bitcoin doesn’t suddenly say, “We should have smart contracts.”

Bitcoin does support certain smart contracts, but it just isn’t trying to be a world VM like ETH and instead tries to emulate cash plus a few features.

I agree with the rest though.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#58
post #44
post #3

A group will never admit they were wrong. A group will never admit, “We made a mistake,” because a group that tries to change its mind falls apart. I’m hard pressed to find examples in history of large groups that said, “We thought A, but the answer’s actually B.” Now that is a useful insight. It's a big problem for voluntary associations. Companies can sometimes change their culture, but it usually requires replacin…

> It took a huge number of casualties before high command got it that charging into machine guns does not work. Well, there was a nice posting here (hopefully someone will find it) about WWI and that 1) stasis was effectively inevitable and 2) you do have to charge the enemy occasionally or you can't maintain your stasis (it prevents them from moving their artillery forward). Edit: Thank you, malcomwhite. https://aco…

> hopefully someone will find it

https://acoup.blog/2021/09/17/collections-no-mans-land-part-...

Re: Groups never admit failure

#59
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying "I believe humans have the capacity to change certain habits" isn't close the same thing as saying "I have the means to make people change".

So you don't have a solution?

I'm afraid not. The brevity of my prior statements was never a suggestion that I had one, so if that's where the confusion you have is coming from, my bad.

Re: Groups never admit failure

#60
Great, let’s end nation states as they’re forced collectivist groups, and they refuse to acknowledge failures.

Wait, not like that?

Blogging is social media. Social media is a pox on humanity. “Here’s my arbitrary line in the sand! And my Patreon! Cause my group can’t admit it’s failings!”

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