Damn this comparison is chilling from Neil Postman
I need to read a Brave New World following reading 1984 a few months ago.
“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came & the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves.
The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we at least had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling:
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing.
Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression.
But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history
As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books
What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.
Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.
Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.
Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies & orgy porgy.
The civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."
In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain.
In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us.
Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us
-Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
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“Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome.” - Charlie Munger
Ensuring incentives are aligned positions you for better outcomes.
At the minimum know what everyone's incentives are before entering any deal/investment.
2. Asymmetry
Position for ideally large (unknown) upside and small (known) downside
"If you ‘have optionality,’ you don’t have much need for what is commonly called intelligence, knowledge, insight, skills and these complicated things that take place in our brain cells"-N Taleb