If your selection function optimizes for minimized damage, not maximized improve... | Hacker News

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rosser on Sept 6, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: Why Don’t Americans Elect Scientists?

If your selection function optimizes for minimized damage, not maximized improvement, sure.

JoshTriplett on Sept 6, 2012 [–]

Same scale, different sign, and varying by person. One person's maximized "improvement" is another person's maximized damage. Sometimes "do nothing" is the best we can hope for, because the alternative is worse.

See also Duverger's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

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