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Review: Bias Against Systematic Success in State Schemes

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

Paul Seabright's review of James Scott's "Seeing Like A State" highlights a narrative bias against systematic, textbook-driven success. The review uses the example of a Languedoc vineyard, where academic experts guided the owners to produce highly acclaimed wine, defying the common belief that great wine relies on inscrutable tradition rather than scientific application. Seabright suggests that Scott's book, while compelling in its critique of overly simplistic, aesthetically driven state schemes, may overlook the potential for systematic reasoning to achieve success, possibly due to a storytelling bias. AI

RANK_REASON This is an opinion piece reviewing a book, discussing narrative biases and the application of systematic knowledge.

Read on LessWrong (AI tag) →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Review: Bias Against Systematic Success in State Schemes

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This is an opinion piece reviewing a book, discussing narrative biases and the application of systematic knowledge.
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COVERAGE [1]

  1. LessWrong (AI tag) TIER_1 English(EN) · Linch ·

    The Aestheticising Vice by Paul Seabright

    <p><span>I'm often in debates with people about legibility and systems vs individuals. People often bring up Seeing Like A State, Secrets of Our Success, and other books or articles in that vein to buttress the case for </span><i><span>metis</span></i><span> over top-down high mo…

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