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This article could be said to be a discussion of the "start-up business" realization / concretization of generic problems in human societies which are also themselves instances of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_design / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_analysis and "imperfect abstraction" problems (like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_abstraction).

This general problem has so very many guises! Delegation affords so much, but trust sure is tricky. (This even applies recursively to, say, taking advice from anyone who "seems to" have studied all there is to know about abstraction/modularity or "human delegation optimization" which is, basically, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demarcation_problem.) It may be the single most central problem of the human condition and is probably a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem .

More directly related to the article, one main impediment is that humans are sneaky & tricky enough that if fakery is incentivized (it almost always is -- due to the thermodynamics of doing vs. faking), then this informs the viability of whatever Rules / protocols you try to establish. https://www.slatestarcodexabridged.com/Meditations-On-Moloch does a better job at extending the conversation than I ever could in an HN comment.



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