9 Comments

This is brilliant

Expand full comment
author

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Feb 8, 2021Liked by Jeremy Driver

Peter Vansittart is the greatest historical novelist you've never heard of. As a Brit, you might even be able to find some of his books for a reasonable price.

Expand full comment

Well put Jeremy! You realize that a lot things can be solved if we put our minds and effort to it. What matters is that we do commit.

Expand full comment

Loosely reminds me of inadequate equilibria as described by Eliezer Yudkowski

Expand full comment

Got pointed to this by Tom Chivers and it's great to put a name to a thing we've all seen a lot.

All I'd add is that the reverse mindset - the "damn the torpedoes" mindset - can be equally damaging. What you need is not the sneer "this'll never work" or the equally bad "stop being negative", but a demand for specificity; if someone raises a specific problem, then address it directly.

Expand full comment
May 23, 2022·edited May 23, 2022

I've always been frustrated about the fact that we live in a time of accelerating complexity and novelty but there's no grand social projects, everything is so depressingly myopic. Cheems mindset is basically not giving the present its due, just managing society in the most boring way possible into straight decline, partly because we are led by geriatrics in government who can't comprehend the moment they're living in and its possibilities

Expand full comment

I really like this concept, I'll be including it in my next two pieces (on Medium)

Expand full comment

Good Work Done.

Expand full comment