What do our (supposed) intellectual elite know about human progress? Repost: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=165938533888688&id=100014176268390 … Intro excerpted belowpic.twitter.com/DRaMaYqnNy
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The charts aren't created or used like that, though. They aggregate giant winners with modest losers, and carefully pick timeframes to emphasize growth. They ignore decadal and large subgroup reversals. They shout down dissent, and say that we have no problems/everything is fine.
Only a fool would use these kinds of statistics to argue that everything is fine and we have no problems. But it would also be foolish to ignore these statistics, and not to try to understand what's going on.
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This suggests that I have either run into loud fools in the past, or that eg: twitter length limits are making people appear foolish. But I do see those sorts of charts used more for a "we have no problems" narrative than a "we have better problems" narrative.
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Can you point to a specific example? I'd be curious to see it (though definitely wouldn't wade in). I think understanding broad positive changes is very important, since it gives us strong hints about what works.
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