A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life
by Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein · 14 Sep 2021 · 384pp · 105,110 words
to extant structures should be engaged in slowly, if at all. Put another way: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Adaptation and Chesterton’s Fence In college, Bret had a friend who was stricken by appendicitis and rushed to the hospital just before her appendix burst. It was traumatic and
On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver · 12 Aug 2024 · 848pp · 227,015 words
-year-old former pro gambler who dropped out of college to smoke weed.” *16 A nerdy term that EAs and rationalists use for this is Chesterton’s fence, referring to a parable by the philosopher G. K. Chesterton about a fence that’s been erected across a road for reasons you don’t
Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life
by Rory Sutherland · 6 May 2019 · 401pp · 93,256 words
allow you to destroy it.”’ A huge cast of well-paid people, from management consultants to economic advisors, earn their entire salaries by ripping out ‘Chesterton’s fences’. Technology companies have partly wrecked the advertising industry and journalism by starving the press of revenue – all under the guise of efficiency. However, they fail
Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy
by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake · 4 Apr 2022 · 338pp · 85,566 words
complex combinations of patents, other IPRs, trade secrecy, and other rights to protect their innovations, and that would-be patent abolitionists may be making the Chesterton’s Fence mistake of getting rid of something that works in ways they don’t fully understand.22 And it seems clear that certain activities where the