Conversation

Complex systems are sometimes complex only because the cost of caring about them enough to figure them out is too high. Even people capable of nerding out over almost anything can’t find a rewarding pathway to caring. There is no learning curve that’s satisfying to climb.
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Like the railroad system is only somewhat less complex than the healthcare system but it offers a vastly more rewarding nerdgramming API. Build/collect models, learn to identify all the types of equipment, learn the history, etc. This pathway is much less fun for healthcare.
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I assume there’s at least a few healthcare nerds who build model hospitals, put pill photos in albums, and read insurance policies for “fun” but I doubt it’s a huge hobbyist subculture like railroads. If there’s a fun hobby there (not quantified self) I’m not seeing it
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By the law of variation and nerdtular selection, such systems will only grow uglier and less comprehensible over time. If you want to keep a system comprehensible and explainable as it evolves, maybe make it nerd-outable early on. Of course you usually want the opposite.
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A complex system can only be properly nerdified when it stops evolving fast. It’s a sort of live embalming process. Or living taxidermy.
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Good survival mechanism. In the Three Body Problem that’s sort of what winds up being the way to signal to other civilizations that would otherwise wipe you out on sight that you’re not a threat.
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