The reductionist mindset is "indirect effects are either unknowable or unimportant."

· Bits and Bobs 7/28/25
  • The reductionist mindset is "indirect effects are either unknowable or unimportant."
    • It's a version of the streetlight fallacy.
      • Focus on what's measurable, not what's important.
    • It ignores externalities, nuance, complexity.
      • It denies emergence.
    • As a result, it hollows everything out.
      • Gives a superficial version that is dead inside, a zombie, shambling along, undead.
    • Computer Science is the maximal version of this mindset.
    • Humanities is where you learn to soak in the indirect effects even though they can't be measured and quantized.

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