29-04-2003 10:37									#1
	Jared Diamond's Disastrous Decisions Get a bigger avatar today!

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge114.html

WHY DO SOME SOCIETIES MAKE DISASTROUS DECISIONS? is an excellent essay. Jared's a swell chap and his Guns, Germs, and Steel is a classic.

Prepare to be depressed by it.

	29-04-2003 15:54									#2
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Do you visit A&L regularly as well?

	29-04-2003 16:41									#3
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I have that one printed since yesterday, looking for a time to read it.

	29-04-2003 16:46									#4
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Why print it when you can watch the video?? He speaks very well

	29-04-2003 17:03									#5
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quote: Originally posted by Agathon Why print it when you can watch the video?? He speaks very well

Hmm. So that's what this video link is all about...

	29-04-2003 17:18									#6
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Thx for the link, I don´t have the time to read it now, but I´ll do it later

	29-04-2003 17:38									#7
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quote: Originally posted by Eli Hmm. So that's what this video link is all about...

Sleep in this morning, eh?

	29-04-2003 23:01									#8
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Do you visit A&L regularly as well?

A&What? I got this from Slashdot.

	30-04-2003 10:18									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I thought GGS was really overrated. No footnotes. Repititious. And attempted to counter the genetics arguement without ever directly looking at it. (As if more than one factor can't influence an outcome.)

	30-04-2003 10:54									#10
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GGS was pretty interesting but not as revolutionary as people claimed and a bit out there. There definitely wasn't an air of formality about the thing.

	30-04-2003 11:01									#11
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quote: Originally posted by St Leo Do you visit A&L regularly as well? A&What? I got this from Slashdot.

Arts and Letters.

	30-04-2003 17:14									#12
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quote: Originally posted by monolith94 GGS was pretty interesting but not as revolutionary as people claimed and a bit out there. There definitely wasn't an air of formality about the thing.

I could care less about "looking formal". (Not a good thing.) What I care about is how much the book relies on facts and solid analysis.

What it didn't have was footnotes, statistics, math, etc.

	30-04-2003 17:44									#13
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Yeah, but when you write not only for a small circle of scientists I think it is ok. It doesn´t automatically mean he doesn´t rely on facts or that his analysis is wrong.

And at the end of GGS there are several pages with scientific literature for every chapter ("Further Readings").

	01-05-2003 04:54									#14
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Great book. If it was overrated, I was one of those doing the overrating.

	01-05-2003 06:06									#15
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quote: Originally posted by BeBro Yeah, but when you write not only for a small circle of scientists I think it is ok. It doesn´t automatically mean he doesn´t rely on facts or that his analysis is wrong. And at the end of GGS there are several pages with scientific literature for every chapter ("Further Readings").

I've read lots of popular books that were chock full of footnotes. It's not too unreasonable.

	01-05-2003 06:24									#16
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I agree with GP on this one. The book offered some very interesting insights but there were also very big leaps of faith. It's one thing to explain how a small island in the Pacific couldn't grow as advanced as Europe, it's quite another to attribute such factors behind all divergences in the world. (it doesn't explain how India used to end up being a colony of a small European island for instance)

	01-05-2003 06:36									#17
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Is this the Subway Jared?

	01-05-2003 08:53									#18
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The bad decisions article was a snorefest, though.

	01-05-2003 09:15									#19
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It's like the book but without the interesting insights.

	01-05-2003 09:18									#20
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quote: Originally posted by Colon It's like the book but without the interesting insights.

He's not wearing any clothes.

	01-05-2003 09:28									#21
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quote: Originally posted by GP He's not wearing any clothes.

You lost me there GP.

	01-05-2003 10:17									#22
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quote: Originally posted by Colon You lost me there GP.

Hans Christian Anderson. The Emperor's New Clothes.