General Discussion

I am going to dig into this on my own.

You know, most people want confirmation of their prejudices gotten from who knows where.

"Common Sense Is Nothing More Than a Deposit of Prejudices Laid Down in the Mind Before Age Eighteen" ... rightfully attributed to Albert Einstein. (1)

IMO, society programs us subtly or overtly into playing losing games. These incorporate myths developed over time to keep people from questioning and challenging authority of various sorts, going on the job treadmill, comparing oneself to others, and (sadly) projecting ones weaknesses and failures onto others rather than taking responsibility and growing.

"Reality: is complex. (2) People want short-cuts to thinking, and reality often conflicts with myths and cockamamie fetishes (like tariffs and trade deficits).

And people are easily fooled into acting against their own best interests. (3)
Many people would rather be "right" than successful.
"Right" means that others share their wacky opinions and theories, or "right" in the sense of hammering one's point of view rather than taking the other person's wants and needs into account, and one remains alone, or alone in a cult of similarly hypnotized zombies. "divorced from reality"

Now that one can meet online, instead of having to meet in person, these cults are easier to assemble, and program.

As for Cory's quote:
Successful large-scale enterprises must attend to the world as it is, not as ideology dictates that it should be.
people are easily confused by cognitive biases. ( 4). Mentioning 9/11 reminds me that we are overwhelmed by "spectacular" events that have vanishingly low probability.


(1) https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/29/common-sense/
(2)

(3)

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
"shocking"