Conversation

The concept of “unfailure“: an idea that doesn’t succeed at the moment it is first proposed, but whose memory is somehow maintained, thus surviving as a possibility that may emerge in some possible future — like a dormant seed, awaiting propitious warmth and moisture
5
121
Replying to
How's it different? What changes over time in politics between when it doesn't work and does? In tech, some enabling condition usually goes from 0 to 1 (like bandwidth in the case of streaming video)
Replying to
Consider Gavin Newsom legalizing gay marriage in San Francisco in 2004. At the time, this move was widely seen as career suicide; now he’s riding his rep as a civil rights visionary all the way to the governor’s mansion, and perhaps beyond.
1
1
Replying to
ah makes sense, surfing overton window. You can't get too far ahead though. If it had been 1994 instead of 2004, it *would* have been suicide. A good research project would be to detect these time-bomb political investments early.
3