„Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.“
The last part of this quote is often forgotten.
Feynman’s Razor
131–138 of 138 posts
Re: Feynman’s Razor
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
have they told you this, or are you saying you are able to hear their private thoughts?
My mistake for engaging with you; you have checkmated me. You are asking me for my sources now, whereas I should have asked you first what your source was for your claim about "nobody choosing to do evil". Alas, that now looks weak and desperate.
it's from Socrates, as channelled by Plato.
Re: Feynman’s Razor
#133To be great is to be misunderstood, and Feynman was a great man. I'm still not sure who decided to abuse some quotes and invent this "razor". I don't believe Feynman ever meant to overconstrain and corrupt information based on (likely incorrect) assumptions about his audience. There's no need to "dumb down" anything ever, not even for children. The information is either there or it isn't regardless of who can compreh…
> There's no need to "dumb down" anything ever, not even for children. This is so wrong that I can't imagine you actually meant it in the way that it quite obviously reads like. When my 3-year old just saw is favorite toy fall from the sofa because he put it in an .. unstable position, then obviously it won't help if I explain the theory of relativity to him, cause ultimately it was gravity causing the mess. It won't…
I don't think we disagree at all about how to explain falling objects to a 3 year old. I did say it's best to leave out irrelevant detail.
You might not like this, but full detail physics explanations are usually irrelevant to everyday life. I try to explain in terms of what's necessary to accomplish a goal, not what's necessary to fully understand.
e.g. "if you tip things over close to the edge it will end up on the floor, so don't do that"
As a side note, kids often put stuff in precarious places because they can't reach anywhere better.
Anyway, the exceptions would be when the goal involves fully and arbitrarily defined contexts such as code or law. You can't assume much to get on with a task before being given a full explanation.
Re: Feynman’s Razor
#134> My favorite comment was from lisper... Cool! Someone noticed me! :-) (I find this noteworthy because I've been putting all this effort into writing a series of blog posts about the scientific method and I've gotten very little feedback on that. But this little throwaway comment, that gets attention! Life is funny sometimes.)
Your profile link is broken, where can I find out more? If you were advertising yourself what would you ask me to read? (giving you a wildcard here)
> Your profile link is broken
Try it now.
Re: Feynman’s Razor
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coca-Cola used cocaine again?
It certainly uses Coca leaves. > Coca-Cola might have taken the cocaine out of their drink, but the company still needed to source coca leaves, which became more and more challenging. By 1914, the American federal government had officially restricted cocaine to medicinal use. So, as the government began debating an official import ban, Coke sent its lobbyists into the fray, pushing for a special exemption. Their fing…
That was a surprise.
But it is written like it is bad, but I see nothing wrong with what Coca Cola did here. It was "de-cocainized coca leaves" after all.
(also, I support decriminalisation of drugs in general)
Re: Feynman’s Razor
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
The corruption is systematic and automated, so the struggle and response must be systematic and automated as well as forceful. Not knee jerk. But more organized than simple individuals doing the right thing. And much more forceful. It must become very dangerous to be an exploiter of the human condition. Must become very dangerous for capitalists, executives, marketers, and so on. Force and systematization/automation…
You've got too much time on your hands with all this jibber-jabber. Maybe you should find something to do me thinks...
Hey scrubs, I own my own company, mentor college kids in category theory and open source programming, and generally love life.
Have a nice day!
Re: Feynman’s Razor
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
My mistake for engaging with you; you have checkmated me. You are asking me for my sources now, whereas I should have asked you first what your source was for your claim about "nobody choosing to do evil". Alas, that now looks weak and desperate.
it's from Socrates, as channelled by Plato.
Many collaborators I've talked to have shown confusion about why they should do things to cause some far away revolutionary improvement to their own lives, or even less the lives of others, when it would involve putting themselves and loved ones at risk.
Like not only do they feel the risk is too great and the payoff too little. But they also can't comprehend what would motivate anyone to act that way. Sometimes they even insist that revolutionaries must be insane or mentally deficient.
But I don't know if it's the case that people make a decision to be this way. I think it's just the default way to be, given a relatively stable life.
People won't really be able to account for why they became this way, or think of a time when they weren't this way. To them it will just be common sense, while revolutionary thought will just seem dangerous, anathema, and basically unthinkable and wasteful.
I think it's like a mental block that evolved to let us form stable social groups. And I think that certain circumstances can unblock it.
In particular I think that a person can get so traumatized by the state of affairs and things that happen to them that they have a strong reaction that causes them to give up hope for getting rewarded by the current regime. Then a person begins investing significant portions of their effort not in just surviving the current regime, but in overthrowing and changing it in a positive way. They begin to live on the hope of justice they can bring for not only themselves, but also others. They see their own lives as irrevocably altered by the trauma, and become agents for the cause of breaking that cycle. To them, the dream of a future generation not having to experience that trauma can be more motivating than thoughts of their own survival.
I believe that just like the first mode evolved to keep societal groups stable, the revolutionary mode evolved to let groups compete with each other and achieve beneficial new power structures.