What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies

by Tim Urban

The problem is that inviting some bias into the equation is a bit like closing your eyes for just another minute after you’ve shut your alarm off for good—it’s riskier than it feels.

If a member of a 10-man unit deserted, they saw that unit as a defective part in the machine that couldn’t police itself, so they tossed it out by killing the whole unit.

If a group of golems vanquishes their common enemy, the alliance will often fracture into smaller rival golems to maintain the Us vs. Them structure.

Removing the cudgel from the game-playing options (or, rather, adding in harsh-enough penalties for it that coercion becomes an undesirable game-playing strategy) changes the game from a contest of who can be the scariest, the most dangerous, and the most intimidating, to a contest of who can provide the most value to their fellow citizens.

Their core audience is little kids, who aren’t ready to sort through too much gray.

Doubt in an individual’s head is mostly harmless—only when they express that doubt does it become a danger to the system.

but a human doing truth is like a dog standing on its hind legs—it’s a real effort and we’re not in our element.