That doesn't only exist in Victoria and that busy-body group isn't only about building and housing. They are active against many things. I live in California and they complain about people walking down the street, water restrictions, lifting water restrictions, cleaning your driveway with water, not being able to use water, it goes on and on.
It does touch on building, but it's mostly about, "NOT IN MY BACKYARD!"
There’s a certain street in SF across from a shopping mall where there are fatal accidents involving pedestrians every year. Consequently, the city planned on building a crosswalk. Well, the NIMBYS blocked it because it would ruin their view.
I would agree. The saying, "Idle hands are the devils playground" can be appropriated as, "An idle mind is the fertile soil of the depressed."
Although the reality is the mind is anything but idle for those predisposed to depression. The rumination, negative thought patterns and self-critical thoughts are worse than a prison sentence of solitary confinement.
For those who may not understand this, imagine standing over a 5 year old constantly berating them, in a horrifically negative way, for every action they take, good or bad. Now imagine the effects of that over years or decades.
This cannot be overstated - the uplifting effect of the written word feels much more potent than hearing it from a friend or scouring YouTube videos.
I have found this book (https://tinyurl.com/4k27x6s9) to be a wonderful resource. I know there are many more to recommend, but I would start with the basics.
>> I kinda disagree with the implied notion that there's only these two options mentioned in the article
I took that away from the article as well, although I doubt that is the author's original intent.
One thing I like to do, if I have the extra time, is pull out a couple of different algorithm's books (Cormen always being one) and see if I can find a new way of viewing a problem in light of an "algorithmic approach."
Admittedly the research takes time and is always a lot of fun as I explore many other "rabbit holes" but it leads to other insights as well. The thing I will try to do is capture a few bullet points that I may have gleaned during this exercise. The approach is not conducive to goal, or time, sensitive deadlines, however.
You have excellent points here. I would also add that the Bay Area really missed the point from an innovation perspective when they started investing billions by and not leading with solving real problems.
As an example you only need to look at the amount of money the FAANG companies spend at consuming your data to sell to advertisers - their investments in data mining for that data, various technologies for click-bait advertising, etc. rather than addressing holes in cybersecurity, technology that may help in the climate crisis, tracking child predators, sex traffickers, mass shooters/shootings etc.
The Bay Area is known for caring about Social Networks, Apple products, Amazon's BS, Google (screwing search results around) and just now slowly increasing biotech...it doesn't have a track record of caring about innovation around important items but more around throwing large sums of money at trivially bullshit stuff - yes, my opinion, but this is a fact and has an impact.
People are conflating "Defund the Police" with a reduction of Policing enforcement and staffing. Whereas, I believe the original intent of DTP was the stop the militarization of the Police by not allowing them to acquire APC and other war-surplus items. The movement feared, rightly so IMO, that having such things would allow Police Departments to train and begin to act in a manner more consistent with field battle and a less like Community-based Policing enforcement.
Additionally, and admittedly without evidentiary support, we could argue that two biggest suppliers of capital investment for innovation used to come from business and Government and largely still do.
However, business has focused on short-term gain for investors and concentrating wealth into the hands of its upper Executives.
Government, at least in the US, has worked itself into a position of partisanship such that deadlock and preventing the other side from doing anything seems to be more important.
These are both short-sighted views and approaches. Scientific discovery takes time, requires consistent investment and a longer-term vision. Quite honestly, I don't think it's a radical view to take to blame the current climate of business and Government in the US for many of the issues we see elucidated here. That being said, the solution is as complex as the problem and would require a major restructuring of both the economy and our Government, IMO.
I think you're spot on with this analysis. I would add that the gridlock in the U.S. government isn't just happenstance, either. An ineffective government benefits Capital (at least in the short term), and thanks to lax lobbying and campaign finance laws, Capital is able to buy enough politicians to ensure that any legislation which would challenge the status quo dies before it reaches the President's desk. Gridlock serves the political and economic elite well, so they're invested in keeping it that way.
I wonder if a big difference between now and the start of the 20th century is precisely the insane focus on short term return, what with the feedback loops being so much quicker and visibility so much higher
I don't know what you mean "the government" worked its way into a period of partisanship. Sure there is terrible deadlock. One party has moved to an extreme and is trying to dismantle democracy so that it can force things it's way. Only one party has gotten to the situation that previous presidents and leaders in the party are almost uniformly against the future next president from that party.
In my eyes, the partisanship is the deadlock. I didn't want to make it a political discussion or turn it into a flame war over blaming one party over another. Both parties, or members on each side, have a vested self-interest in maintaining that deadlock. That's really all I meant.
