Thread by @anthilemoon

A thread about trilemmas — hard choices between 3 options or the impossibility to combine 3 different options

A popular one in tech is the project management trilemma

You want things to be great quality, fast, and cheap? Too bad, you can only pick two

Another fun trilemma is the Zizek trilemma, which illustrates the impossibility of demonstrating loyalty to the communist regime while also being honest and intelligent

Go through each of these, it's actually pretty funny

But these trilemmas can be pretty serious too

See the "Trilemma of the Earth" (or 3E Trilemma) used by scientists working on environmental protection

Do you want to develop the economy, save energy, and protect the environment? Yeah too bad you can only pick 2

The Pinker social trilemma states that society cannot be simultaneously fair, free, and equal

Fair = people who work harder get wealthier
Free = parents will leave most of their inheritance to their kids
Equal = everyone begins life with the same fortunes

See the problem?

Trilemmas have existed since the dawn of times (one of the 1st known ones is called "Epicurus' trilemma")

But we're really bad at identifying them in our own lives, which makes us chase impossible outcomes

Okay, feeling inspired - off to writing an article about all this! 🙃

I am *very* excited to publish this one tomorrow, it was a lot of fun to write

You know the internet is magical when you type "quintilemma or pentalemma" and you get a super detailed and smart answer

Thanks @littmath you weird wonderful human 🙏

daniellitt.com/blog/2016/10/3…

@littmath And here is the article!

🔺🔺🔺

https://twitter.com/anthilemoon/status/1226844315865026565