22 August 2016 - doubt and confidence

When the system is working right, doubt and confidence are self-balancing. If you start with a lot of doubt, you double-check carefully and gain confidence—that’s how science was invented. If you are overconfident, you forge ahead blindly and surprises teach you to doubt. But for the system to work right, you have to remember what has happened. Science works because it writes stuff down, and politics is dysfunctional because participants keep recasting the terms of debate in their own favor. It’s another item for my to-do list as King of the World: Develop a hive mind.