First–there's been numerous times in history where a complex, cursed problem turned out to have a 'simple' solution. As it turns out, citrus juice straight up cures scurvy. Some moldy bread unlocked an entire arsenal in the fight against infectious disease. The cholera epidemic in London was cut short by simply removing the handle to the Broad Street Pump. You can save tons of lives very cheaply by distributing mosquito-treated bed nets. Or just by washing your hands. And instead of maintaining a giant bureaucracy whose sole purpose is to scrutinize the 'worthiness' of each welfare recipient through obsessive means testing, it turns out it's more effective–and cheaper!–to just give people money.”Larry continued: “And yes, 'for every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong.' We should be wary of overly simplistic sounding 'silver bullet' solutions. But we shouldn't let this wariness become too extreme! If humanity automatically ruled out every 'simple' solution simply because it sounded too simple, we would have missed some of the greatest wins in human history.”
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First–there's been numerous times in history where a complex, cursed problem turned out to have a 'simple' solution. As it turns out, citrus juice straight up cures scurvy. Some moldy bread unlocked an entire arsenal in the fight against infectious disease. The cholera epidemic in London was cut short by simply removing the handle to the Broad Street Pump. You can save tons of lives very cheaply by distributing mosquito-treated bed nets. Or just by washing your hands. And instead of maintaining a giant bureaucracy whose sole purpose is to scrutinize the 'worthiness' of each welfare recipient through obsessive means testing, it turns out it's more effective–and cheaper!–to just give people money.”Larry continued: “And yes, 'for every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong.' We should be wary of overly simplistic sounding 'silver bullet' solutions. But we shouldn't let this wariness become too extreme! If humanity automatically ruled out every 'simple' solution simply because it sounded too simple, we would have missed some of the greatest wins in human history.”
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