Too Clevery by half. The law of unintended consequences.

[DiogenesLamp]

Someone just suggested to me that I don't post enough,  and as a person that very much likes to express my opinion,   I instantly saw the wisdom in this suggestion,   so here it is.   


I would like to start a topic that I have been contemplating for several years.   It is how really smart people with really good intentions,  end up making a muck of things.   A condition that the British refer to as "Too Clever by Half." 



I just read this article the other day,  and it is a pretty good example of the sort of thing to which I am referring. 

History is full of events we look back upon as turning points. In some cases the people involved in the events were unaware of their significance. The Marian Reforms changed the course of Roman history, but the people at the time had no idea what was coming as a result. They seemed like much needed reforms in response to previous military disasters. Having politicians raise volunteer armies and then lead them against enemies was simply not working. No one imagined that these reforms would result in Sulla’s march on Rome.

Yeah,  that good intentioned common sense reform just utterly rooked the Roman Republic,  didn't it?   :)


Have more to add,  but I'm going to wait for other's input.   I already know what I think about things. 

[ABX]

For want of a nail, a shoe was lost
For want of a shoe, a horse was lost
For want of a horse, a rider was lost
For want of a rider, a message was lost
For want of a message, a battle was lost
For want of a battle, a kingdom was lost
All for want of a nail
- George Herbert (1593-1632)

[ABX]

I think for the US, prohibition may be one of the biggest ones with lasting negative consequences.

[DiogenesLamp]

I think for the US, prohibition may be one of the biggest ones with lasting negative consequences.

Prohibition is a good example.   It started out with good intentions,  quickly inflated a black market crime syndicate,   was routinely flaunted,  and ended up being repealed after having accomplished mostly nothing of worth.       


Something a lot of people don't know is that the Prohibition movement and the Suffrage for Women movement,  heavily overlapped in their groups of supporters.   


I'm beginning to think the 19th amendment was as bad of a mistake as was the 18th.   As a matter of fact,  most after the first ten,   seem to have been mistakes. 

[GrouchoTex]

I think a good recent example was the campaign finance reform laws. Too complex, and some people, who were trying to abide by it, ended up breaking the law.

The big one, of course, Obamacare ( or was it really "unintended ").

[HonestJohn]

The double-nickel speed limit was another law with unintended consequences...

... of making every driver in America a lawbreaker.

[GrouchoTex]

 

The double-nickel speed limit was another law with unintended consequences...

... of making every driver in America a lawbreaker.

[ABX]

Here is a fun one to explore if you have time.

In the 1950s, William Shockley moved from Massachusetts to Palo Alto, California to be close to his sick mother.

Explore what happened due to that one simple move.

[HonestJohn]

Here is a fun one to explore if you have time.

In the 1950s, William Shockley moved from Massachusetts to Palo Alto, California to be close to his sick mother.

Explore what happened due to that one simple move.

It caused the loss of our 51st state, Atlantis... and the mass memory loss of the incident throughout the world.

As proof, look at images of the world from satellite.  There is no island state of Atlantis anywhere!

 

[Emjay]

I would nominate Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

[EasyAce]

Here is a fun one to explore if you have time.

In the 1950s, William Shockley moved from Massachusetts to Palo Alto, California to be close to his sick mother.

Explore what happened due to that one simple move.

It inadvertently led to the creation of Fairchild Semiconductor, when the eight Ph.D.s Shockley hired for his
semiconductor enterprise rebelled against his rather tyrannical administration and---after they were rebuffed
over their demand that Shockley be replaced---made a deal with Sherman Fairchild, formed Fairchild
Semiconductor, and revolutionised what came to be known as Silicon Valley irrevocably. (They were known
colloquially as the Traitorous Eight, playing on Shockley's tendency to dismiss opponents as "betrayers"
or "traitors.")

By most accounts Shockley was a changed man after he won the Nobel Prize in 1956. That's left best
for other discussions not always to everyone's taste, alas. And in due course the Traitorous Eight would
experience their own issues and divisions.

[Hoodat]

Reminds me of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie."  I just love that children's book.

Is that the one where the mouse ends up on welfare?

[Cowboyway]

Electing a president based on the color of his skin.

[DB]

Someone just suggested to me that I don't post enough,  and as a person that very much likes to express my opinion,   I instantly saw the wisdom in this suggestion,   so here it is.   


I would like to start a topic that I have been contemplating for several years.   It is how really smart people with really good intentions,  end up making a muck of things.   A condition that the British refer to as "Too Clever by Half." 



I just read this article the other day,  and it is a pretty good example of the sort of thing to which I am referring. 





Yeah,  that good intentioned common sense reform just utterly rooked the Roman Republic,  didn't it?   :)


Have more to add,  but I'm going to wait for other's input.   I already know what I think about things.

Sometimes it takes a brilliant mind to come up with and/or believe complex theories that explain the facts as presented - void of any common sense.

That isn't to say that brilliant people do not have common sense, many do. But just because they may be brilliant doesn't necessarily mean they do.

Brilliant people can also be very good at manipulating people to get what they want and can rationalize why their lesser’s are disposable in the process.

The most dangerous people of all are brilliant but without discipline or morals.

Just my 2 cents...

[GrouchoTex]

I would nominate Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

Of course, I am surprised we all missed that.

[Jazzhead]

The most obvious example's staring you in the face, DL.    Donald Trump's nomination, propelled by folks genuinely angry at the state of the nation,  will instead cost conservatives both the White House and the Congress. 

[ABX]

It inadvertently led to the creation of Fairchild Semiconductor, when the eight Ph.D.s Shockley hired for his
semiconductor enterprise rebelled against his rather tyrannical administration and---after they were rebuffed
over their demand that Shockley be replaced---made a deal with Sherman Fairchild, formed Fairchild
Semiconductor, and revolutionised what came to be known as Silicon Valley irrevocably. (They were known
colloquially as the Traitorous Eight, playing on Shockley's tendency to dismiss opponents as "betrayers"
or "traitors.")

By most accounts Shockley was a changed man after he won the Nobel Prize in 1956. That's left best
for other discussions not always to everyone's taste, alas. And in due course the Traitorous Eight would
experience their own issues and divisions.

That's the wikipedia version, but the interesting part is even stranger.
When he moved from Massachusetts to Palo Alto, he left behind a state that had very strict non compete laws to one that was (for lack of a better term) liberal in regards to taking research elsewhere. When he was in Massachusetts, his semiconductor research would have been stuck at MIT as strictly an academic exercise as he wouldn't have been able to take it commercial. When he moved to Palo Alto, suddenly that technology was available on the market and kicked off a research boom in the area.

... That one move created Silicon Valley and everything that came with it. The research there was so wild west, even kids in their garages were able to get computer parts and build their own- guys like Steve Wozniak.

If it wasn't for a sick mother, the computer technology boom may have taken a very different path being relegated to the realm of university and government research.

[Wingnut]

Is that the one where the mouse ends up on welfare?

If you teach a mouse to bake cookies he will feed his meece for life.  Give him welfare, section 8 housing, an EBT card and a six pack of beer and he'll vote democrate his entire life.

[EasyAce]

That's the wikipedia version, but the interesting part is even stranger.
When he moved from Massachusetts to Palo Alto, he left behind a state that had very strict non compete laws to one that was (for lack of a better term) liberal in regards to taking research elsewhere. When he was in Massachusetts, his semiconductor research would have been stuck at MIT as strictly an academic exercise as he wouldn't have been able to take it commercial. When he moved to Palo Alto, suddenly that technology was available on the market and kicked off a research boom in the area.

I had forgotten about the Massachusetts laws. I wonder if all or part of them are still in effect
there today?

If it wasn't for a sick mother, the computer technology boom may have taken a very different path being relegated to the realm of university and government research.

By "sick mother" did you mean Shockley's mother . . . or Shockley himself? ;)

[Emjay]

Many examples of people having the bright idea to introduce a species of creature into a country to do something.

The starling, the English Sparrow and so on.

In Hawaii, the glaring example is the Mongoose.  Someone had the bright idea to bring in Mongooses (why isn't the plural Mongeese?) to reduce the rodent population. 

Problem:  Rats come out at night; Mongooses sleep at night.  They would kill snakes but there are no snakes in Hawaii... at least until some fool decides we need them.