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Tell HN: A Manifesto for These Times
3 points by AnimalMuppet on Sept 29, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment
1. Feelings matter, but facts and reality matter more.

Take education, for example. The students' self image matters, even for education purposes. Students who think they can do it learn more than students who think they can't. But actually learning matters more than self-image does. There's a real world outside of school that we're trying to raise children to be able to live in, and the real world will destroy their self-esteem if they can't actually do what the real world needs them to do.

Or take politics. How the voters feel about your policies matters. You can't get them to follow policies that they feel are wrong. But in the end, it matters more whether the policies work than it does how the public feels.

2. In the long run, you won't win zero-sum games enough to make them worth playing.

Again, this applies to politics. In fact, it's what's wrong with Congress. They're so busy playing zero-sum games that they can't govern.

It also applies to the culture wars. Both sides are so busy trying to gain another foot of ground that they miss that they're destroying the culture.

Maybe two points isn't enough for a manifesto. What else should be in here?



Judge ideas on their own merit and not based on who proposed them. Too many good ideas get hate because of the speaker.




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