The influence of an idea, book, or system of thought depends on the number of friends, regardless of that of detractors, a point that those who attack religion or atheism don’t get.
via The influence of an idea, book, or system of… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Another attribute of small is beautiful: what we call democracy.
The idea of democracy is to take the citizens’ location as fixed, and the identity of those in government as variable, the “representatives” matching the preferences of the people. But you can get similar results of representation, even under dictatorships, by varying the people’s location instead.
Assuming you are able to move to the canton or municipality where you feel the dictators represent your tastes & beliefs, such competition would put pressure on local municipal dictators to please taxpaying constituents so they stick around.
So the smaller the size of political units and the larger their number, the more democracy we get in the system.
via Another attribute of small is beautiful: what… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
One is that the economy is organic and has much more in common with a cat than a washing machine.
Unlike a washing machine that is engineered for just one purpose and does not take well to external stress or disorder, a cat can learn much from a bit of stress on its bones, for instance.
“Everything organic needs stressors to communicate with the environment.”
Bones have appetite for stressors, the bone density increases with some variability.
“While policymakers try to lower risks in the economy, Mr Taleb believes that it is better for smaller problems to surface and be dealt with, rather than have them erupt with more venom later.
via Small doses of trauma build up firm resistance, News, News, AsiaOne Business News.
HatTip to Pradeep