Book: 20230211 to 20230313, "Try Common Sense" by Philip K. Howard

20230212 - Introduction 11

Interesting.

Can we rely on common sense to handle the current complicated society?

How to tell and balance long term and short term benefit conflicts? Local and large area benefit conflicts?

Regarding the 5000+ rules apply to apple orchard, most of them are used to avoid very rare incidents. But this should not be like car accidents: it doesn't make sense to apply so many rules to reduce the probability of very rare incidents. I guess the better way is to ask everyone to use common sense to protect themselves.

Regarding the donation of the prom dresses, I don't understand why donation has to be unconditional.

Regarding the airport security screening rules, I think it's to avoid noises from people's judgements. It's necessary.

Law is for normal situation, not for rare exceptional cases. Thanks for the law designers, at least jury and judges can adjust the law a little bit.

20230212 - Part I Replacing A Failed Philosophy 19
20230212 - 1 America the Practical 25

Responsibility means a person takes ownership of results.

The three ingredients of responsibility are a goal, the authority to achieve it in your own way, and a accountability to those around you. p27

The concept of law is just Meme. It guides us when we are not sure what to do, but the detailed content may not suit specific situation. In that case, we should keep our mind open and talk to other people to reach our goal.

It's necessary for everyone to understand the content of law, but that means we need to make law simple, and that means the law should not try to cover all situations.

To set up new law, we may need to explain the story behind the law, which is the foundation of the new law. So, if the base is changed, then quite possible we need to change the law too.

20230212 - 2 The Fixation on Correctness 30

The legal system is so huge and complicated now. To some extent, "correctness" can stop almost most of people from making any important decision.

This reminds me of the book "Talk to Strangers": the traffic policeman can easily find an excuse to issue ticket to any driver.

How to balance "noises" and "correctness"? Law makers need to consider more about long term, global benefits. We need to allow rare exceptions which are not covered/protected by law.

It's like traffic accidents. There are 3700 people die from car accidents, but there is no law trying to solve this problem completely.

20230213 - 3 Back to Basics: Allocate Scope of Responsibility 37

When officials act unreasonably, they can be held accountable by their superiors in a democratic hierarchy - and ultimately by voters. p38

Mr Howard assumes that the crowd is rational. I don't agree. Quite possible, they may be misled by some random opinion or media.

This is the major problem of judge based common sense. Another one is noises.

However, responsibility also means "skin in the game", it means consequences. No rule can predict what may happen in the future and guarantee good results, so people have to think hard to decide what to do. Good rule should only remind people walking towards the right direction, reminding people what they may forget or misunderstand.

20230213 - 4 How Correctness Causes Failure and Alienation 43

Correctness =  Bureaucracy

It tries to prevent the people in charge from doing thing evil or inefficiently, but as it cannot cover all corner cases, it's make things worse in a mature society.

20230221 - 5 Forty Years of Marginal Reforms 50

I think the problem is not about government, but about the people in USA. American want clear law to avoid bad behaviour from government, and they don't understand that law cannot cover everything.

The problem cannot be solved if people want to accept minor "sacrifices". What about the people been "sacrificed"? It's like the people die in traffic accidents. What about them? Normally they would get some compensation from insurance companies. Or they wouldn't. No law can prevent death from traffic accidents.

20230222 - 6 Unworkable Political Ideologies 57

The constitutional concepts of individual rights and due process were meant to be shields against state coercion, not swords to get advantages over other free citizens. p66

Should we care about black people and LGBTIQA+? Yes. Should we care them more than other people? In my opinion, no. We need to make sure that no people being treated unfairly, instead of giving some subgroup of people special privileges.

20230223 - Part II Four Principles For Practical Government 69
20230223 - 7 Give Responsibility to Identifiable People 71

An entirely new, and radically simpler, legal code is required to create an open framework that requires fresh decisions at every level of responsibility. p77

I don't think so. The current legal code is the result of hundreds of years of exploration. Many situation is complicated, and we cannot rely on common sense to make choices. However, I agree that law should care more about major directions, instead of minor details.

Law defines what is wrong. Correctness defines what is right. p78

Guideline defines suggestions/best practice. There is no such thing as "right". We should let people what is wrong, and then let people to make decisions in the "not wrong" scope.

Our protection against official abuse is not mindless compliance, but oversight by other officials and judges of the first official's fidelity to his legal responsibility. p81

Let government officials take responsibilities, and let other people to watch over them, means we need to trust the wisdom of crowd. However, can we trust the crowd?

Aaron Wildavsky's The Secret of Safety Lies in Danger. p84

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351316248-12/secret-safety-lies-danger-aaron-wildavsky

20230225 - 8 Restore Accountability to Public Culture 85

Fully agree with the author about this chapter.

Unions negotiate with the employers about pay rise. But if all employees get the same pay rise, the best ones would eventually leave, and the inferior ones would stay forever.

At lease, unions need to let people know how to fire the employees whose performance are poor.

20230309 - 9 Governing Institutions Must Govern 110

"Does the law require that all trees be cut down because some youths may climb them and fall?" p126

If my child fall from the tree, can I take it peacefully, without suing any other people? Can everyone else do the same?

We should punish a company if it make terrible or selfish decisions which hurt some people. But this punishment, when pass some threshold, would not be more effective.

20230311 - 10 Revive the Moral Mandate 130

Moral debate is dominated by fringe groups and fanatics, with no keel to keep debate centred on the common good. p131

"Value judgement" is critical. The value here means "shared social value", which is meme. No value judgement means no memes. Meme is the key to keep the society running productively.

If we let laws and rules to decide what we can or cannot do, then the whole society is automated, and there is no value judgement. Then no creativity, and we are doomed.

Can you prove your decision is fair? p139

Anyone who ask this question is spoiled by correctness.

We are determined to respect everyone, but we have forgotten that respect has to be earned. p141

We should be kind to everyone, tolerate(don't mind) other people's lifestyle and communities, but not respect everyone.

A successful democracy, Tocqueville said, should aspire not to efficiency but to the energy of citizen ownership. p142

This means, everyone would like to take responsibility, and believe that they can get fair reward if they make right choices, and they are willing to pay the price if they are wrong.

Move government agencies out of Washington is good idea!

20230311 - 11 Profile of a Practical Society 146

The same problems were there long time ago. Emperors tried to set up rules to control their empires, and all failed. Modern countries are trying it again.

Why does it happen again? Why all societies tried to achieve this?

Because people are lazy. Not just the rulers. People want to follow rules, so they don't need to think in daily lives.

20230312 - 12 Who Has Responsibility for Change? 154

I think the author's opinion is too ideal.

How can we minimize the negative impacts from rules? We need most of people to control their behaviours by consciousness instead of their subconsciousness. But that's hard.

Our gene want to save as much energy as possible. It's unrealistic to expect everyone to become Zen master.

But we don't need to solve the problem completely and perfectly. Every one more person to think more through his/her consciousness, the world would become better.

Rules are just memes.

20230313 - Appendix Ten Principles for a Practical Society 159

A good society should not discriminate any minor group, and it should not give any minor group special privileges, although it looks after some minor groups when they have objective difficulties.

How many people are willing to take responsibilities? Most of them just want to get some fun. I think that's the major hurdle of social reform.