"They are not average and they are not normal" — Brian Klaas on power seekers. #shorts

less than 1m read

·Nov 3, 2024

Processing might take a few minutes. Refresh later.

The people who end up in power are not representative of the rest of us. They are not average, and they are not normal people. Those who are power hungry tend to self-select into positions of power more than the rest of us.

As a result, we have this skew, this bias in positions of power where certain types of people, often the wrong kinds of people, are more likely to put themselves forward to rule over the rest of us. That is one of the key challenges of modern life: we have to find ways to block them.

There's this absolute intersection between culture, behavior, individuals, and systems. When we have this simplistic view of power, we're missing the story.

What you really need is a system that attracts the right kind of people, so that the diplomats who are clean, nice, and rule-following end up in power. Then, you need a system that gives them all the right incentives to follow the rules once they get there.

If you do have people who break the rules, there needs to be consequences.

Worked example: Logistic model word problem | Differential equations | AP Calculus BC | Khan Academy

Epic Grand Canyon Hike: Thirst and Threats in the Godscape (Part 3) | National Geographic

View All

Dividing polynomials by linear expressions | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy

We’re told to divide the polynomials. The form of your answer should either be just a clean polynomial or some polynomial plus some constant over x plus two, where p of x is a polynomial and k is an integer. Fair enough! If we were doing this on Khan Aca…

Can Cell Phones Help Save Rain Forests? This Tribe Thinks So | Short Film Showcase

So we take an old cellphone and we put it up in the trees. If it has solar panels, it can last for years. It listens to all the sounds of the forest all the time to pick up the sound of chainsaws and logging trucks, anything that indicates there’s danger.…

TIL: The B in BASE Jump Doesn't Stand for Badass (Amazing Footage) | Today I Learned

So you’ve probably heard of BASE jumping, but do you really know what BASE stands for? It is actually an acronym which represents the four different objects at a base jump. A good leap from a building. This one’s a tricky one because it can involve legal…

How To Get Rich According to Naval Ravikant

There are a million ways to make a million dollars, and this is the sound of all. Ravi Khan does it. For those of you who don’t know, Naval Ravikant is a philosopher and entrepreneur whose insights on happiness, wealth creation, and personal growth have g…