Learn more about politics with this collection
How to synthesize information from multiple books
How to analyze a book
How to set reading goals
Rules of thumb for avoiding planning disasters
Complex projects are impossible to successfully plan for. These rules can help:
Take small steps. In an experimental approach to social change, presume that we cannot know the consequences of our interventions in advance.
Favor reversibility. Prefer interventions that can easily be undone if they turn out to be mistaken.
Plan on surprises. Choose plans that allow the largest accommodation to the unforeseen.
Plan on human inventiveness. Always plan under the assumption that those who become involved in the project later will have or will develop the experience and insight to improve on the design.
42
100 reads
MORE IDEAS ON THIS
From "nature" to "natural resource"
A forest, for example, is nothing but a utility for a state: providing timber and tax revenue. Its narrow utilitarian perspective ignores the naturalistic view of the forest as a complex biological system. Or the anthropologic view, looking at all the socially negotiated uses like hunting, fishin...
43
138 reads
The Modern State
The premodern state was pretty blind; it knew precious little about its subjects, their wealth, their landholdings and yields, their location, their very identity. All that required was a concentrated population, within easy range, producing a steady supply of easily transportabl...
48
545 reads
Customs vs Laws
Customs are a living, negociated practices which are constantly being addaped to new circumstances, including power relations. They should not be romanticized being riven with inequality and other biases.
Laws don't have the plasticity and the evolutionary power of customs. Historically spe...
41
168 reads
State measurement vs Local measurement
Local units of measurement are cultural & practical. In Malaysia, distances are measure in "rice cooks", denoting the time it takes rather than the distance, which could be less useful for varied terrain. In France, a pint meant anything from 0.9l to 3.33l. It depends on the ...
41
111 reads
Elements of state-engineered tragedies
Tragic episodes of state-initiated social engineering originated from:
- The administering ordering of nature & society.
- The rise of a modernist ideology, aimed at creating a scientifically utopic future.
- The authoritarian instinct of the state to use it...
41
251 reads
“To be ruled is to be kept an eye on, inspected, spied on, regulated, indoctrinated, sermonized, listed and checked off, estimated, appraised, censured, ordered about….
To be ruled is at every operation, transaction, movement, to be noted, registered, counted, priced, admonish...
PIERRE-JOSEPH PROUDHON
42
159 reads
Techne & mētis
Greeks separated knowledge into:
- Techne: Technical knowledge that could be expressed precisely in the form of hard-and-fast rules (not rules of thumb), principles & propositions. Techne is based on logical deduction from self-evident first principles.
- M...
43
116 reads
The City as a Utopian Project
Le Corbusier, an influential architect, believed the city was the rational expression of the modern consciousness & that people would embrace it wholeheartedly. His cities were big, straight, with clearly separated areas. A designed macro-order that led in practice to micro-confusions.
Citi...
40
123 reads
Standard & Abstract Citizens
High modernism's beneficiaries were abstract caricatures, not real people. The advocates of social engineering were planning for generic subjects (who needed so many square feet of housing space, acres of farmland, liters of clean water etc)
Standardized citizens are uniform in the...
42
130 reads
High Modernism Utopia
Modern people started to see rational order as an ideology. Efficiency became a virtue in itself. They committed to a more egalitarian society, to making the amenities of modern society available to all, through:
The rational authority of experts, who can use the scientific...
41
179 reads
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