This is actually a pretty big issue. It was basically locked in to Meditations on Moloch because it was too good. The essay does a really good job explaining it, and giving examples that create the perspective you need to understand the broad applicability of the concept, but has too many words; “incentives” or even a single phrase (e.g. “race to the bottom”) would have fewer words, but it wouldn’t give the concept the explanation that it’s worth. Maybe there could be some kind of middle ground.
This is actually a pretty big issue. It was basically locked in to Meditations on Moloch because it was too good. The essay does a really good job explaining it, and giving examples that create the perspective you need to understand the broad applicability of the concept, but has too many words; “incentives” or even a single phrase (e.g. “race to the bottom”) would have fewer words, but it wouldn’t give the concept the explanation that it’s worth. Maybe there could be some kind of middle ground.
I’ll admit that I really like how there are so many examples shared in Meditations on Moloch, which helps it serve as a kind of intuition flooding.
oh my GOD I cannot tell you how much I needed this