You don’t know the “IMPROVEMENT”
You think you know, but you don’t
There’s not much you know BEFORE YOU TRIED IT, TESTED IT
Few things are knowable a priori
And the more complex the matter — the more testing it requires
The greater the scale — the more testing it requires,
And some matters are so large and so complex that NO amount of testing will bring ANY clarity. It’s pure chaos,
The only thing that’s knowable is whether it works or DOESN’T WORK
You prattle about PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT
about social justice and social progress,
about equality,
about saving this and saving that,
about a better world,
LIKE YOU HAVE A CLUE
You don’t have a clue
You couldn’t have a clue
I don’t have a clue either
Because we DON’T KNOW THE IMPROVEMENT
WE only know what WORKED HERETOFORE
We don’t know the improvement,
We only know that it SOUNDS GOOD IN THEORY
Sounds “FAIR” and “JUST” in theory
But we DON’T KNOW whether it would work or not,
We can’t know,
We can’t know unless we TEST IT,
And we can’t even easily do that
We can’t just easily “test it”, once and for all
We can’t SNAP our fucking fingers and instantly get ALL HE WAY THERE, instantly TRANSFORM the society, transform the world, instantly turn it upside down
The process is gradual
The process is gradual — therefore we introduce some “improvements”, and observe,
But what we observe can be meaningful or it can be meaningless,
You will see some changes, some data, perhaps some improvements, perhaps some drawbacks,
But foremost you will see NOISE
And what do we do with meaningless noise? We ASSIGN OUR OWN MEANING TO IT,
Therefore the conservatives will complain about the changes for the worse, disregard for tradition and values,
And the progressives will fucking whine about the steps being too small, too piecemeal, not radical enough, not revolutionary enough
Neither side has a clue
Both sides are great at talking (and politicking)
Both sides are great at explaining how the world works and the secretes of the universe
But the truth is we have no fucking clue
We only know that what WORKS — WORKS
What survived — LASTS
That’s all we know
We don’t know why,
And we for SURE don’t know how to improve it
And this is why the only thing that matters is WHAT YOU DID TODAY, WHAT YOU TANGIBLY IMPROVED TODAY
Only that is real
ONLY that is real,
And everything but what you DID TODAY — you’re INVARIABLY UTTERLY IGNORANT ABOUT
And everything but what you did today — you’re invariably utterly ignorant about
I don’t wanna hear about “views”
I don’t wanna hear your opinions
I don’t wanna hear how you’ll make this world a better place
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS ABOUT THOSE MATTERS
You can only have a clue about that which you CONSISTENCY, TANGIBLY IMPROVED, and TODAY
Everything else is a DISTRACTION
Now,
DOES IT MEAN WE CAN’T IMPROVE THIS WORLD?
OF COURSE NOT
We can
But
We just don’t know how,
We can’t know how
NOT exactly
I said you can IMPROVE YOUR LIFE
THAT you can do with certainty, reliably, and EVERY SINGLE DAY
It’s a slow process, it’s hard, but it’s REAL
If YOU can improve your life, perhaps i can improve my life
Perhaps he can improve his life and she can improve her life,
This is some REAL improvement
Perhaps you can SCALE it a little,
Perhaps you can IMPROVE the lives of those around you,
Perhaps you can positively affect more people,
TRULY positively
Perhaps you can
The more you scale — the more DIFFICULT it becomes
The less clear
The harder to control
The upside is joined by some downside,
You bring a desirable product or service to the world — but you’re “EXPLOITING the planet”,
You bring order to the society — but you’re “TRAMPLING over my liberty!”
You give to the poor, take care of the poor — but you’re taking from the rich and productive
Or you don’t take the resources from the productive (and rich) — but they’re not even productive any more, they’re merely exploitative
blablabla
SCALE IS UNAVOIDABLE, obviously
We didn’t choose to be “at scale”. We are at scale. We proliferated — now there’s a lot of us, we’re at scale
We do our best
We have to
But the GREATER THE SCALE — the more CAUTIOUS we must be
Because nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IS OBVIOUS AT SCALE,
It’s the closest to “obvious” at an individual level
Therefore,
I strongly suggest you shut the fuck up,
And only focus on what you can TANGIBLY IMPROVE TODAY IN YOUR REAL FUCKING LIFE
And when someone comes to you to harass you with his ideologies and “ideas” and IMPROVEMENTS of the world — tell him what i just told you
Tell him that he has NO FUCKING CLUE what he’s talking about,
And that most likely EVERY SINGLE PROGRESSIVE IDEA he has is NONSENSE,
And that progress AT SCALE has to be INVARIABLY MASSIVELY SLOW AND CAREFUL AND CAUTIOUS
Because we just CAN’T KNOW HOW THINGS WORK AT SCALE,
and if he’s at all interested in TRUE IMPROVEMENT, rather than IMAGINED IMPROVEMENT — then let’s talk about WHAT WE CAN IMPROVE TODAY, IN EACH OTHER’S LIVES
please be simple