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6. The Law of Self-Effacing Solutions:
Once a solution has been achieved, people forget about the original problem (and only see further problems).
- Progress often masks its own challenges, leading us to overlook the severity of original problems.
- Every solution creates new issues, but if they're less severe, it's deemed progress.
- Chemotherapy, though harsh, is far better than untreated cancer. Similarly, calls to "defund the police" overlook their role in reducing violence.
- Lockdowns during Covid caused hardship, but they prevented greater suffering by curbing the virus's spread.
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4. The Law of Conservation of Outrage:
No matter how much progress the world is achieving, the total amount of outrage remains constant.
- As societies become safer and more prosperous, people tend to raise their standards for what is considered safe or prosp...
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- This inclination persists today, evident in the higher engagement with negative headlines in news stories.
- Even during peaceful times, people are captivated by
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“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.”
Excerpt from :The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
DOUGLAS ADAMS
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“No charity ever raised money for its cause by saying things are getting better.” (The Rational Optimist)
MATT RIDLEY
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“You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom.”
AYAAN HIRSI ALI
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Conclusion: We Need More “Idiots”
- Pessimism often gets mistaken for intelligence, but believing in progress takes courage.
- While pessimists sound wise sticking to the known, progress relies on optimism and innovation.
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- Yet, their ugliness led to blame for pandemic woes. This pattern, dubbed the "ugly problem fallacy," hides the benefits of solutions.
- I...
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“I have observed that not the man who hopes, when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.”
JOHN STUART MILL
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- The conservation principle applies to various domains, influencing perception and even causing people to find new reasons to be outraged.
- The challenge lies in reco...
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1. The Law of the Invisibility of Good News:
Progress happens gradually and imperceptibly, while regress happens all at once and immediately grabs our attention.
- Breaking news often involves things breaking down (an earthquake, suicide bom...
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2. The Law of The Velocity of Bad News:
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, except bad news.
- In today's world of instant communication, bad news spreads faster than ever.
- Our brai...
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3. The Law of Rubbernecking:
The more gruesome the news, the more we lap it up.
- Humans are naturally drawn to negative and alarming events, a behavior rooted in evolutionary instincts.
- "rubbernecking," is...
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7. The Law of Disinfecting Sunlight:
The freer a society, the more ugly things will surface.
- In liberal democracies, the more complaints about human rights violations, the better protected those rights are likely to be, according to
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The Best Year in Human History?
- Can we argue 2023 was one of our best years yet? Looking back, it seems so.
- Since the turn of the century, each year (excluding the pandemic) has brought affluence, safety, and good health to more and more people.
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5. The Law of Awful Attraction:
If you don’t find bad news, bad news will find you.
- New age beliefs like the Law of Attraction suggest positive thoughts attract good outcomes, while negative thoughts invite trouble.
- ...
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If life is better than ever before, why does the world seem so depressing?
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