This is what the DOGE guys don’t understand: even if it seems you can easily replace something, you will find out that the devil is in the detail.
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Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
71–80 of 234 posts
Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Removing something critical and seeing what happens is a methodology used by Musk in all his companies: remove LIDAR from self driving car, remove flame trench from spaceship launch pad, etc. Results may vary.
"Results may vary" is not an acceptable methodology for the US Government, when millions of lives are potentially at stake. Ed: among the ways millions of lives could be lost: losing control of our nuclear arsenal or nuclear materials due to haphazardly firing people responsible for maintaining them. Bungling the response to the next pandemic, due to haphazardly firing people, cutting science funding and deleting inc…
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Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#73This is what the DOGE guys don’t understand: even if it seems you can easily replace something, you will find out that the devil is in the detail.
Never ask ol' Chesterfield about his fence.
Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#74This is what the DOGE guys don’t understand: even if it seems you can easily replace something, you will find out that the devil is in the detail.
They don’t care. They don’t care about ‘saving money’, they’re just messing about to see if they can. To move the goalpost of what is acceptable. To goosestep the United States back into a Russia-aligned nation that lets rich people pluck the poors bald like chickens.
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Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Removing something critical and seeing what happens is a methodology used by Musk in all his companies: remove LIDAR from self driving car, remove flame trench from spaceship launch pad, etc. Results may vary.
"Results may vary" is not an acceptable methodology for the US Government, when millions of lives are potentially at stake. Ed: among the ways millions of lives could be lost: losing control of our nuclear arsenal or nuclear materials due to haphazardly firing people responsible for maintaining them. Bungling the response to the next pandemic, due to haphazardly firing people, cutting science funding and deleting inc…
This seems circular, since your opinion, views, thoughts, etc., are what the opposing factions are rejecting ( or de-legitimizing) in the first place.
Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#76Related. Others? Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38407851 - Nov 2023 (136 comments) Reality has a surprising amount of detail - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36309597 - June 2023 (1 comment) Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29429385 - Dec 2021 (118 comments) Reality has a surprising amount of detail (…
it's quite a good read, i'm not surprised it's been posted so many times!
Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#77a.k.a "Humans are unsurprisingly such simpletons when forming their mental model of reality, and always oversimplify."
There's the reasonable amount of oversimplification necessary to just get through life, then there's actively trying to oversimplify because it makes life "easier". I judge people very harshly based on whether they accept reality as complex or rail against it. I am not proud that I do it, but it seems like it has value. I feel like strong yearnings for simplicity (and willingness to ignore messy reality) correlates w…
~ i feel like strong yearnings for simplicity (and willingness to ignore messy reality) correlates with people who are unpleasant to have in my life.
Wow man, I like this so much. I feel it strongly
Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#78Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don’t care. They don’t care about ‘saving money’, they’re just messing about to see if they can. To move the goalpost of what is acceptable. To goosestep the United States back into a Russia-aligned nation that lets rich people pluck the poors bald like chickens.
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you don't have to ask people for their intentions, you just have to watch what they do. look at how many government organisations that were investigating the Musk empire got Dodged: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/uploadedfiles/2025.02....
Re: Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's the reasonable amount of oversimplification necessary to just get through life, then there's actively trying to oversimplify because it makes life "easier". I judge people very harshly based on whether they accept reality as complex or rail against it. I am not proud that I do it, but it seems like it has value. I feel like strong yearnings for simplicity (and willingness to ignore messy reality) correlates w…
Reading Ian McGilchrist’s “Master and his Emissary” has been incredibly eye opening on this theme. Oversimplification and getting upset with the world when it doesn’t fit your model of it is definitely a poor character trait —- which is nevertheless unfortunately trained and rewarded in our schools and much of our professional work. The world is what it is and there are some helpful abstractions for navigating it, bu…
I was hoping this would get mentioned! I heard a podcast with him and was enthralled. Are his interpretations and outlook on this considered "valid" by the scientific community? I've been intrigued but curious about how seriously he's taken.