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A batch of the best highlights from what Quinn's read, .

The Map is not the Territory Summary: Humans often confuse maps with territories, despite evidence from various disciplines. We wrongly assume that what we measure is what matters, but our values may not have quantifiable metrics. Biometric data can oversimplify complex discussions on health. This conundrum becomes more significant when considering governance on a larger scale. How do we count and operate a nation state wisely? Can social science inform smarter political economies? We must escape the false clarity of information systems that lack collective wisdom. Transcript: Speaker 3 There are maps and there are territories and humans frequently confuse the two. No matter how insistently this point has been made by cognitive neuroscience, epistemology, economics, and a score of other disciplines, one common human error is to act as if we know What we should measure and that what we measure is what matters. But what we value doesn't even always have a metric and even reasonable proxies can distort our understanding of and behavior in the world we want to navigate. Even carefully collected biometric data can include the other factors that determine health or can oversimplify a nuanced conversation on the plural and contextual dimensions Of health, transforming goals like functional fitness into something easier to quantify but far less useful. This philosophical conundrum magnifies when we consider governance at scales beyond those at which homo sapiens evolved to grasp intuitively. What should we count to wisely operate a nation state? How do we practice social science in a way that can inform new, smarter species of political economy? And how can we escape this seductive but false clarity of systems that reign information but do not enhance collective wisdom?

Paul Smaldino & C. Thi Nguyen on Problems With Value Metrics & Governance at Scale

COMPLEXITY: Physics of Life

Perspective on Managing Different Projects: Cultivating a Garden v.s. Hacking Away in a Mine Summary: A friend suggested thinking of my projects as a garden, where some ideas will flourish while others won't. It's less predictable but more enjoyable than physically laboring in the mines. Transcript: Speaker 1 I remember one point when I was pretty stressed out, and I was saying to my wife, oh my gosh, I've got all these different projects, and I have to work on this one, and I have to work on that One. I have to go to work in the mines. I have to go chip away at this project. And it might work out, it might not work out. And she said to me, you should think of all your projects as more of a gartan. You're planting lots of ideas. Some of them will come up, some of them won't. That's a little unpredictable. But you should think of it that way rather than going down with your hard hat and your pick and toiling away in the pit to find the seam of truth.

Glen Weyl & Cris Moore on Plurality, Governance, and Decentralized Society

COMPLEXITY: Physics of Life

"All truth, beauty, and progress comes from the union of the unlike": The Philosophy Behind Glen Weyl's Work Summary: My career is like the Vulcan philosophy of infinite difference and infinite combinations from Star Trek. I've been a socialist campaigner, head of the National Teenage Republican Organization, a technocratic economist, and now a figure in the web three space. I've been connected to populist political movements and the neoliberal establishment. I thrive on contradictions and trying to make something of them. Transcript: Speaker 2 I think the way I describe it is leaning on a phrase that I often use to substantively describe some of the work, which is it's drawn from Star Trek and the Vulcan philosophy of infinite Difference and infinite combinations. And it says that all truth, beauty, and progress comes from the union of the unlike. And I think that that's a good description of my career. I was a socialist campaigner before I was 10. And I was head of the National Teenage Republican Organization. A few years after that, I was a technocratic economist and total basher of the web three space. And now I'm something of a figure in that space. And I've been connected to populist political movements of various stripes and also, you know, to like the neoliberal establishment. I'm into these contradictions and to trying to make something of that.

Glen Weyl & Cris Moore on Plurality, Governance, and Decentralized Society

COMPLEXITY: Physics of Life

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