We Don’t Need Elections to Figure Out What People Want

Source I read today a very thought-provoking piece by Yuval Harari, a historian and philosopher. “You can vote but you can’t choose what is true.” A paraphrased summary of his thesis: Elections are awful ways of determining what is true. For that, we need to turn to experts and institutions, not popularity contests. However, elections … Continue reading We Don’t Need Elections to Figure Out What People Want

Too Big To Fail: A Call for States’ Rights

In the wake of the 2008 crisis came the realization that our financial system is teetering on the brink, at the mercy of banks that are too big to fail. A lesson that’s hardly surprising to Software engineers who have known for decades that "God Objects", entities that are far too widely encompassing, produce intractable … Continue reading Too Big To Fail: A Call for States’ Rights

The Difference Between Direct and Representative Democracy

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch"   - Ben Franklin “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”   - John Adams Earlier, I had written about the flaws inherent to democracy and … Continue reading The Difference Between Direct and Representative Democracy