31–40 of 174 posts
Nowadays it's just a convenient method to make people do something without questioning it or asking why.
Well, let's go back to worshipping the sun, then. Who knows, if we don't, it might not rise tomorrow... Or, just maybe, progress itself is a tradition that deserves its own reverence. Sometimes, Chesterson's fence was erected by a shepherd who no longer uses the field that you'd rather play soccer on. It was useful in its day, but no longer.
I feel like this comment points out the tradition of being contrarian on HN, and it would be foolish of me to question it.
What about circumcision? Is it all about forming group bonds?
Tradition might in some cases be wiser than you, because it gathered the wisdom over a much longer period, no matter how inefficiently it did so. But the obvious solution is to do science to take the things that work, and throw the other things out. You need to challenge the traditions to do so.
Some conservatives admit that there are harmful traditions at least, but very few acknowledge the opportunity cost of not figuring out why the traditions that are beneficial - developed in the first place. For example maybe the knowledge of the substances that manioc processing removes would be beneficial for drug development or some other uses? By keeping the tradition sacred we will likely never discover that, even if we save a few lives initially. Or maybe there's a way to grow manioc that doesn't need all the processing steps?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe you should be worshipping the sun. Morning sunlight exposure is associated with all kinds of health benefits, not least of which producing Vitamin D, an essential vitamin that, among other things, provides vital protection against certain circulating diseases... Maybe you should also live everyday as though the possibility of the sun never rising again were real, then maybe you might get busy doing those import…
You can develop a days worth of vitamin D in 15 minutes (or simply supplement it for the same benefits), meanwhile excessive sun exposure is correlated with all manner of health problems, not the least of which is cancer. People who spend more time outdoors tend to die younger. Again, progress trumps tradition.
Source for this? Searching for the claim only turned up results saying more time outdoors is associated with better long-term health outcomes.
Also: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heres-something-unexpect...
The thing that progressivism has gotten wrong is that tradition isn't completely arbitrary and lacking in utility. The thing that conservatism has gotten wrong is that tradition isn't simply defensible for its own sake. Modern progressivism feels like going into a house to remodel, with a sledgehammer, without bothering to give any consideration to which walls might be load bearing. Conservatism feels like keeping a…
Modern feminism, however, focuses on equality rather than liberation. It feels comfortable to assert that if women were truly liberated, they would be equal, and would be equally represented as software engineers, and plumbers, and truck drivers, etc. This is, in contrast, a failure of progressivism. It assumes that no traditions or gender roles had any basis in preferences that need not be equally distributed between sexes.
TL;DR Virtue of the Mean every time
Generally you should assume that tradition/status quo is always right until proven otherwise (=a logically compelling argument against, backed empirically).
Experimental evidence shows that tradition and common sense are almost invariably wrong.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can develop a days worth of vitamin D in 15 minutes (or simply supplement it for the same benefits), meanwhile excessive sun exposure is correlated with all manner of health problems, not the least of which is cancer. People who spend more time outdoors tend to die younger. Again, progress trumps tradition.
Imagining a life of merely 15 minutes outside sounds miserable. It's also about the psychological benefits of sunlight exposure.
What about circumcision? Is it all about forming group bonds?
Chesterson's fence is about understanding: tradition may be smarter than you, maybe not, but it would serve well to understand the reasons why it's a tradition before disposing with it.
in software, I would rather tear it down and find out what it was there for. most developers I've worked with in the past couple decades operate in an atmosphere of constant fear and would never consider doing that. even if the cost of putting it back is zero. better to climb over it every day than risk introducing some unknown inconsistency.
maybe we'd be better engineers if we actually learned about the systems we're using.