A batch of the best highlights from what Quinn's read, .
The need for transparent and democratic decision-making: Human bullshit and algorithmic bullshit are two sides of the same coin
Summary:
Data and algorithms are not inherently bad, but they should be used in a transparent and democratic way that empowers everyone.
Instead of arguing about whether computer or human decision-making is better, we should focus on accountable and transparent decision-making. This means avoiding human biases and stereotypes as well as naive machine learning without considering its real-world implications.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
So the point is that it's not that data and algorithms are bad it's that they need to be applied in a way which is transparent and which is democratic and which empowers all of us to carry On these debates rather than simply being tools which accurately or inaccurately are being used to buy the powerful to control the rest of us it's silly to argue about which is better You know computer decision making or human decision making that's really not the point I mean the point is we should have accountable transparent decision making instead of bs there's Human bs which comes in the form of stereotypes in ideology and there's algorithmic bs which comes in the form of naive machine learning without thinking enough about its applications
Glen Weyl & Cris Moore on Plurality, Governance, and Decentralized Society
COMPLEXITY: Physics of Life
One misconception about highly successful cultures is that they are happy, lighthearted places. This is mostly not the case. They are energized and engaged, but at their core their members are oriented less around achieving happiness than around solving hard problems together. This task involves many moments of high-candor feedback, uncomfortable truth-telling, when they confront the gap between where the group is, and where it ought to be. Larry Page created one of these moments when he posted his “These ads suck” note in the Google kitchen. Popovich delivers such feedback to his players every day, usually at high volume.
The Culture Code
Daniel Coyle
Most of us really enjoy the building aspect but start to get a little shy when it comes to telling people about the stuff we’ve built. That could be for any number of reasons: fear, embarrassment, self-preservation, or an aversion to being perceived as hawking your wares.
It’s a valuable exercise to investigate whether or not you resonate with any of those reasons. Are you afraid people are going to make fun of what you built? Are you embarrassed that it isn’t up to your own (admittedly high) standards? Are you waiting for some elusive perfect moment? Do you have an aversion to “marketing” and don’t want to become the thing you hate? Whatever it is for you, I encourage you to really dig into it and see if that fear is worth keeping around.