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CONSENUS_ILLUSION

                                             October  13, 2006
                                             December 10, 2006
The central myth of wikipedia    
is that reasonable people can    
agree, and make decisions        
based on consensus...                  Maybe there are
                                       similar problems
This never works very well             with more elaborate
in the real world:                     social systems, though.

Consensus means that the                 A group governed
most stubborn person wins.               by Roberts Rules
                                         quickly gets ruled
The reasonable people will               by people who like
not only not prevail,                    to play legalistic
they'll eventually leave...              games.

   And over time the group
   will become a collection
   of the weak, governed by
   the stubborn.

       Often just one person.

       Possibly a small,
       like-minded
       faction.


Having said this, I suspect that
some people out there are getting
ready to suggest that *I* may be
an unreasonable fellow who
refuses to compromise...

Well, yeah, I am, but I know about the
problem and try to compensate for it;
this slows me down a lot compared to the
untempered fanatics, who plunge ahead
without ever doubting that they're right.

That's the kind of thing that I'm talking
about it: it takes work to be reasonable,
it's much eaiser to just go through the
motions and fake being reasonable; and if
you get the sense that the other guys just
aren't trying, at some point you're either
going to descend to their level, or more
likely, just walk away and spend your time
on something else.


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