With the latest post on Neoreactionaries, I felt the urge for some Moldbuggery.
He had an example of the human organizational version of the principle described above, which I realize now is largely his whole Cathedral analysis as well. When the feedback loops get screwed, so do you.
Nearly every scientist in a field can be working together to promote a falsehood because they all get their money from Joe Romm and company. And if the falsehood is exposed rather than promoted, there is no field left. It is no more surprising that all USG-funded scientists are unanimous in promoting AGW as a global emergency, than that all Philip Morris-funded scientists are unanimous in promoting tobacco as a vitamin.
This is the question asked by John Cook on Twitter. He lists responses from different people:
Mine are: quantum mechanics, Python, cooking, the language of philosophy.
What learning curve do you wish you'd climbed sooner? Give reasons and stories if you feel like it. Do you think other people should climb the same curves?