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Other People’s Problems

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Re: Other People’s Problems

#111

Post by maraphon »

WalterBright wrote: post #106
pc86 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some moderate level of inflation is a pretty basic economic principle. Too much and you cause some problems but none or negative and you see a whole host of other issues. That's like saying the fact the first couple payments on a loan are almost all interest because of a conspiracy among politically active bankers, when in actuality it's because that's how math works.

> Some moderate level of inflation is a pretty basic economic principle The US had zero net inflation from 1800 to 1914, and fantastic prosperity.

US property owners enjoyed vast expanses of unexploited resources to tap and legally protected exploitation of whole classes of people to help them do so. I hope you are not claiming that that (limited) prosperity wasn't generated by wiser and more humane policies than today's.

Re: Other People’s Problems

#112

Post by vonwoodson »

atoav wrote: post #105
skybrian wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument from what other countries have done can often be used simplistically. Yes, it’s important to learn from other countries. However, when you look into it, it sometimes turns out that the other 29 countries have all done things in somewhat different ways, that their solutions are somewhat path-dependent and culture-specific, that they have problems too, and your country has some unique problems of its own t…

Yeah, sure. You cannot translate what works in Sweden one to one to the US and expect the same success. But here is what you could do: realize that the cultural differences between Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan, Finland, UK, Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Belgium and so on are very likely not less than the difference between the US to all of these countries. And yet, some things US citizens cla…

The difference between California, Texas, South Dakota, Maine, Ohio are as different as Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan... It's a really foolish opinion or disregard the immense diversity of 350,000,000 people, and (unfortunately) it's made all over the internet.

"Why don't you just do X", totally papers over the extent of what just needs to happen.

"Everyone should just do Y" is always bad policy. Just look at what happened with something as simple as wearing masks.

Re: Other People’s Problems

#113

Post by vonwoodson »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #10

My general experience is often people think problems are easy to solve from the outside because they just don't understand the problem. Thus you can often find communities of people with disabilities who understand the problems and the people from the outside who offer insulting and simple solutions to the problems. As soon as someone falls from group B into group A the problems stop becoming simple and easily solubl…

"""people think problems are easy to solve from the outside because they just don't understand the problem"""

This is called [The Dunning–Kruger effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect).

Re: Other People’s Problems

#116

Post by tharkun__ »

ozim wrote: post #104
jmbwell wrote: post #28

It’s true that sometimes an outsider can offer a fresh perspective. From where you sit, there might be a solution you can’t see. The nearest exit might be in the row behind you. Maybe this applies more often when the one giving advice has more experience than the one receiving it, or when the person who is stuck has habituated a narrow perspective or some form of learned helplessness. But I recoil at something I thin…

I tend to ask in rapid succession if obvious solutions were used. It gives me warmup time to think about more detail. Unfortunately people get annoyed when they ask for help and someone offers them 10 solutions they already have tried. But often one of the obvious was not tried or considered so the person gets quick solution. Otherwise warmup to think more in details and ask follow-up questions why some of “obvious”…

I think it very much depends on the how (as often).

Very different to ask something along the lines of "Why didn't you just do X?" (the unwritten "duh!" being very implicitly present!) vs. "Interesting. Naively I would've have thought that doing X might solve this and seeing you didn't go with that solution I'd be interested to understand the constraints and reasons that make X unviable."

With the first (type of) question you've disqualified yourself already, even though you didn't 'just give the solution' (which is even worse). After that kind of question we're already on adversarial grounds.

The "5 whys" is a great technique but if literally just ask "Why" a lot, you'll get the boot more often than not ;)

Re: Other People’s Problems

#118

Post by 6510 »

vonwoodson wrote: post #112
atoav wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sure. You cannot translate what works in Sweden one to one to the US and expect the same success. But here is what you could do: realize that the cultural differences between Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan, Finland, UK, Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Belgium and so on are very likely not less than the difference between the US to all of these countries. And yet, some things US citizens cla…

The difference between California, Texas, South Dakota, Maine, Ohio are as different as Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan... It's a really foolish opinion or disregard the immense diversity of 350,000,000 people, and (unfortunately) it's made all over the internet. "Why don't you just do X", totally papers over the extent of what just needs to happen. " Everyone should just do Y" is always bad policy. Just lo…

Each government in the world is for the most part presented with the same set of puzzles. Then they spend good money trying to solve it in isolation as if they are all unique and special.

Some countries are just 1000 years behind in some areas, or 1000 years ahead. The US is no exception in both.

If you never did leg day the gains will be easy.

Re: Other People’s Problems

#119

Post by p_j_w »

vonwoodson wrote: post #112
atoav wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sure. You cannot translate what works in Sweden one to one to the US and expect the same success. But here is what you could do: realize that the cultural differences between Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan, Finland, UK, Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Belgium and so on are very likely not less than the difference between the US to all of these countries. And yet, some things US citizens cla…

The difference between California, Texas, South Dakota, Maine, Ohio are as different as Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan... It's a really foolish opinion or disregard the immense diversity of 350,000,000 people, and (unfortunately) it's made all over the internet. "Why don't you just do X", totally papers over the extent of what just needs to happen. " Everyone should just do Y" is always bad policy. Just lo…

>The difference between California, Texas, South Dakota, Maine, Ohio are as different as Turkey, France, Australia, Ireland, Japan

This is just so obviously not true on the surface. We all speak the same language at the very least, which isn't true for a single one of those countries you listed.

Re: Other People’s Problems

#120

Post by ta2112 »

And THIRD. Real problems are really hard to solve. If they weren't, then everyone would solve them and you couldn't make any money on your solution. So while I'm midway working my way through a solution, everyone decides to stop by my desk and say, "Why don't you just do X? Problem solved!" Funny, X is the very first thing I thought of myself, but it's more complicated than that. So I keep working through my solution, casually nodding at the peanut gallery as it cycles by.
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