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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 07:10:25 JST Paul Cantrell

   I’m increasingly of the mind that human beings typically just •hate• tradeoffs. I don’t just mean they hate making decisions involving tradeoffs. I mean they hate admitting to themselves that tradeoffs •exist•.

   They want there to be a right answer, instead of a fuzzy, uncertain, unsatisfying best guess.

   People organize whole political philosophies and worldviews around this need, and will harm themselves and others to hold on to that sense of there being a “right answer.”

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 07:16:55 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Among many results of this psychological phenomenon is my least favorite form of internet argument:

     [There is a tradeoff between A and B]

     “A!!!”

     “How can you say that when B!!”

     “But A!! Why do you ignore A?!?”

     “That proves you don’t care about B! You are a horrible person!”

     “You A denialists are all the same!”

     [There is still a tradeoff between A and B]

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 07:20:40 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     (OK, actually fascist trolling is my least favorite form of internet argument. But the one upthread is pretty bad.)

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 07:46:26 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Dan
     • dingodog

     @dko @dingodog19
     What you describe is very much the way my Engineer Brain works, and it took me a very long time to figure out that this is yet another thing about me that’s unusual and weird.

   • Embed this notice
     dingodog (dingodog19@sfba.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 07:46:28 JST dingodog

     in reply to

     @inthehands I think this might stem from the fact that it takes less energy to think about something that is neatly contained in a well-defined box.

     Considering ramifications, interactions, fuzzy gray areas takes work. Everyone is sometimes too tired to do that work, and some are always too tired (or too unwilling) to do that work.

   • Embed this notice
     Dan (dko@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 07:46:28 JST Dan

     in reply to

     • dingodog

     @dingodog19 @inthehands I think it's also appealing because it's a one-and-done "solution" instead of:

     1. Appraising the situation as accurately as possible.
     2. Understanding challenges and goals.
     3. Choosing a course of action that strikes a balance of cost and benefit appropriate to those challenges and goals.
     4. Verifying how effective the action has been by restarting the process.

     Unless you're not only willing, but also open to having new facts alter your thinking, doing this is difficult if not possible. It requires the humility to recognize past-you made the best decision you could given the information you had, what you're trying doesn't work, and if you still want to resolve the issue at hand you have to change tack.

     Increasingly, too many people have the same problem. Their minds are concrete: Thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.