This alone should explain why history is full of catastrophes.

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[–] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

This is a legitimate way to analyze things, and you're effectively analyzing the relative entropy of outcomes.

This is why for instance, strings will naturally tangle when exposed to random movement. There is a only a single configuration that is untangled and infinite tangled configurations, so given enough random energy will always tend towards a tangled outcome.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    What about the N64 controllers when you and your buddies have been playing, correctly ordered p1-p4 to avoid tangles, and get called down to dinner. You come back and its just knots.

    Quantum fairies or some shit idk

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago

    You just discovered entropy!

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    This is why I hate linear planning. Pick an end goal and devise a process for approaching said goal. Correct the process as needed along the way.

    Doesn't fit in a gant chart, though, so my boss never listens.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    Business, especially big business, hates the idea of adaptive strategy. There is no guarantee you will achieve the goal, and no clear cost to do so. Small businesses, or businesses willing to take risks, will factor that in and sometimes get ahead because of it.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    Well, that's just plain statistics of entropy: if there are two possible outcomes, there is a 95% chance of it being the wrong outcome. :D

    Throw in some Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is shit), and we are all running to stand still.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Entropy, like dropping a box of spoons. But in your life you can just shift your view of what's right and wrong. People act like there's one right path - go to school, get a job, get married, have kids,... There are a billion right paths and you can choose any of them. And if you choose not to decide...

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    Anna Karenina principle

    "for success to occur in a complex endeavor, all key factors must be present and work correctly. The endeavor does not succeed when even one essential element is missing, meaning there are many different ways to fail"

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    "Society is doomed for one very simple reason: it takes dozens of men working months with millions of dollars in material to build a building, but only one dumb-ass with a bomb to bring it down." – Jason Pargin, John Dies at the End

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Tangled Cord Theory

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    I’m stuck in the definition of what is right and wrong?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    Almost every mistake in history can be traced back to somebody abandoning reality in favor of their own.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    The more general statement is it's harder to build something than it is to destroy it. There are limited paths that will reach a given goal, but nearly unlimited paths to undo that accomplishment.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Things don't actually go wrong they just don't go right.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    A corollary to this thought is the so-called [persistent] "attacker's advantage": attackers need to do stuff just right only once to be successful, while the defender must do always, everything right to be successful at defending.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    That depends upon how narrow your definition of "right" is. Sort of reminds me of this parable.

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  • This is called Entropy

    The specific type of entropy you’re describing is called “Social Entropy” but in all cases entropy is simply the fact that there are (usually) more disordered states for a system to be in than ordered ones. So if a system can undergo any sort of change, it is just generally more likely to become less-ordered than more-ordered.

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