The Power and Beauty of Incrementalism

https://supernuclear.substack.com/p/the-power-and-beauty-of-incrementalism

by surprisetalk • 1 year ago

81 39 1 year ago

supernuclear.substack.com

puttycat• 1 year ago

That's also the beauty of evolution–there's no goal in that search algorithm, just open-ended incremental exploration which eventually grows beautiful things.

See Kenneth Stanley's book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25670869-why-greatness-c...

lovestory• 1 year ago

This is the second time someone has recommended this book on HN so for sure it can't be a bad read. I will be starting it tonight

michaelsbradley2• 1 year ago

The book may be a good read or bad one, I am unfamiliar with it. However, terrible recommendations are made on HN all the time, as well good ones, so I’d caution against “recommended a few times on HN” (on its own!) as an indicator of much anything.

---

EDIT: changed wording from “multiple times” to “a few times” to be more clear.

gsf_emergency_2• 1 year ago

From Ken Stanley's wiki

He left both Uber AI Labs and the University of Central Florida in 2020 to lead the Open-Endedness team at OpenAI as a Research Science Manager.

ChrisMarshallNY• 1 year ago

I've always found that an "evolutionary" approach to design is important[0].

[0] https://littlegreenviper.com/evolutionary-design-specificati...

ants_everywhere• 1 year ago

That's also the beauty of evolution–there's no goal in that search algorithm,

Yes there is, there's a fitness function, both in biological evolution and evolutionary algorithms

IAmBroom3• 1 year ago

That is not a goal. It is an adaptive strategy to meet changing constraints.

layer82• 1 year ago

There’s no goal in biological evolution. Being subject to natural selection based on the present environment is an inevitability.

You could argue that mutation isn’t inevitable, but its presence and degree is subject to natural selection as well.

_lex• 1 year ago

Incorrect. The search algo has a goal: to find out. You just think it has no goal because you didnt think in quantum.

jacknews6• 1 year ago

woah this seems like tribalism run riot.

How about just living, and learning to deal with, the rest of society.

bogwog• 1 year ago

Yeah, it seems easier (and healthier?) to make friends with your current neighbors than to try to build a concentration camp of friends.

IAmBroom3• 1 year ago

In this age, is living next to "10 besties" really needed?

I have one neighbor that I'm really close to - yay! I can borrow their wheelbarrow, or they can borrow my sprinkler attachment, without asking, and return it promptly (to remain friends!). We watch each other's dogs on vacation. All of this is much easier than if I had to use a farther-away friend.

But my other neighbors are just ... small-f friends. Friendly. I would even consider asking them to borrow a cup of sugar.

But as nice as it would be to have ALL my besties nearby, we do just fine with phone calls, texts, social media, and seeing each other at events.

I do agree with the advantage of incremental change. I suck at completing big tasks. But if I view each step as a small task, I can get there.

rockostrich2• 1 year ago

This comparison feels like it's in very poor taste. The article doesn't promote any kind of ostracizing and certainly isn't promoting that anyone in the community is forced to be there. Making friends, especially with people who already probably have their own social lives, tends to be a lot harder than maintaining friends. It's completely valid for people who are already in each other's social circles to plan to live close to each other.

My partner and I moved into a house on a pretty secluded street of a very suburban township. There are 5 houses on the block. We're friendly with everyone but we're all in very different periods of our lives. Two of the houses have younger kids, one has older kids, and one is empty nesters. They're all super nice and we're friendly, but none of them are coming over to lift heavy weights in the garage while Creed is blasting.

neighman2• 1 year ago

How can this be interpreted as "tribalism"?

This is simply a response to a lack of resources (time, energy, etc) to develop deep relationships during the stage of life when one can afford permanent housing. Modernity has made this harder than ever before.

If this doesn't apply to you, consider yourself truly privileged.

jacknews6• 1 year ago

How can it not be, where you want to build an enclave of 'like' people (alike in friend connections, education, outlook, not only race, which is what you seem to assume).

It's a stage of life where you should be branching out and meeting 'other' people, not just surrounding yourself with college buddies, and further cloistering yourself in that bubble.

deadbabe• 1 year ago

Friend compounds are typically the ultimate echo chambers. It sounds fun, until you have a vastly controversial opinion. Suddenly, you are no longer a friend, you no longer feel welcome in the very place that you live.

The less you know about your neighbors, the better. They could be whoever you want them to be.

LightBug1• 1 year ago

Not sure why you're down-voted. This idea, while good hearted, seems nuts.

Venture out into the world, and stay in touch with good friends. Simple?

javier123454321• 1 year ago

This is a bad take for a few reasons. You are implying that moving close to friends is not 'Living and learning to deal with the rest of society'. That is a false premise.

Second, living in community of close friends is a massive improvement in quality of life for everyone involved. This is as much biological as it is spiritual. You can either do that by becoming close to strangers that live nearby or living nearby people that are already close to you. Given that the average adult from the US moves over 11 times[1] in their life, the solution is self evident.

Lastly, using tribalism here is misguided. That implies a in and out group. Why use that word instead of 'communalism' which implies helping each other.

1. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-many-times-the-aver...

jacknews6• 1 year ago

It's talking about building a 'friend compound', so of course there will be an in and an out group.

It's one thing to agree with a bunch of friends to live close-by in a particular city, but something quite different to create a 'friend compound' or 'bestie street', ie something obviously exclusive.

And I begin to wonder if 'friend' is a cover of some kind. Are these swinger communities? Or hasidic enclaves, or mormons or whatever?

mgfist4• 1 year ago

In a time when people are becoming less social and more isolated, I think creating communities like this is super cool.

atemerev• 1 year ago

I am in awe how people can talk about buying 1.8 million homes like it's nothing big.

Jtsummers• 1 year ago

Per the table, that was 4 homes and 5 adults. That's $450k/home and $360k/person.

tolerance• 1 year ago

The people appalled by this practice have good reason to be and I don't think the people who support it are considering the consequences, which aren't necessarily bad but subject to one's own political ideology. And by that I mean the general ideals that a person has on how people should materially cooperate and not some popular label imposed by a two-party system, for example.

I wonder what the responses would be if you asked the people in this "bestie row", their raw opinions on concepts like "diversity", "inclusivity", or whatever.

YesThatTom2• 1 year ago

I wrote about this a decade ago

https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2945077

The Power and Beauty of Incrementalism

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