One of my growing convictions is that values (either explicit or revealed preference in market/non-market environs) simply don’t matter beyond one big purpose: coalition formation through virtue signaling. Behavior is 99% shaped by imitation of what you see working for others.
you buy Timberland brand boots because you needed foot protection and saw others were pleased with their Timberland brand boots. You don't miraculously discover that your feet need protecting by observing others. You figure that one out for yourself by walking.
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OTOH you often don’t recognize mundane problems as problems till you see the solution. I didn’t know I needed Google until I saw Google. We do occasionally see problems before we can solve them, but they tend to be big fantasies (flight, immortality...)
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Google brand information organization system. You did, however, know that you needed information organization systems. You discovered that as soon as you started reading non-trivial texts.
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Taleb’s example of suitcases on wheels is a good one here. Why it took till the 1960s before somebody thought of putting wheels on suitcases is unclear.
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Speculatively, because prior to the 1960s with the modern airport terminal, traveling had relatively few spaces where rolling your luggage made any sense?
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Possibly. Or people with marble-floored palaces also had servants whose well-being they didn’t have to care about. And bell-carts, which I think predate roller suitcases. But point is, most people probably didn’t go around wishing for wheeled suitcases until they first saw one.
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so what's the value there and how is it being socially signaled?
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not meaning to be adversarial. what I mean is more like "what is the subset of values that ARE primarily social signals" because I reject that this is true for the whole category.
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> You figure that one out for yourself by walking to be nitpicky, I don't think anybody does this? parents buy shoes for their kids before kids ever think "hmm, this walking business would be better with shoes on". it's learned socially.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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