A Theory On Good Ideas

I looked at my paycheque this morning and saw my weekly $110 deduction for the Canada Pension Plan and got grumpy. Taxation and philanthropy turn out to be two sides of the same idea coin.

I want to chat today about how you know if something is a good idea or a bad idea.

Your first thought might be that there is a difference between if something is logically good or morally good. It turns out that both arguments are satisfied by one test:

Does the idea spread on its own or does it require coercion, deception or intimidation to propagate?

As Adam Mastroianni says, “Good ideas don’t need bayonets.”

It is possible for a logically bad idea to spread on its own for short distances if the topic is complex and the message sounds attractive.

Most luxury beliefs fit in this category.

However once the idea has to compete with the enemy of reality it often falls apart. Defund the police sounds fine if you live in a high income suburban neighbourhood where you’ve never had to rely on police showing up at your house.

Thus the idea stops spreading.

Good ideas, if conveyed properly, do not require outside force to be adopted.

This plays out on every scale. Both international relations and interpersonal dynamics require cooperation, not force, to reach a healthy ideal.

Let’s look at some examples on different scales:

• Renewable Energy & Climate Policy: Bad Idea

  • All climate discourse has been artificially elevated to the level of crisis or catastrophe (deception), neither of which are true. Additionally climate policy is currently only enacted through taxation (intimidation) or heavy subsidies (coercion).

• Meditation: Good Idea

  • For those that see the benefits of meditation, no one has to lock them in a room and force them to meditate.

• Seatbelts: Good Idea

  • While mandates did accelerate the speed of adoption, personal safety devices generally don’t have to be enforced for people who value their own life.

• Spreading Democracy: Bad Idea

  • Sort of a non-starter given that the use of military force is the first step in this idea. The poor track record of successful democratic installation in foreign countries should be a good indication of how bad the idea is.

• Friendship: Good Idea

  • You’ll know in a true friendship that there is no forced cooperation, you enjoy spending time with the other person. That isn’t to say other types of incentivized friendship don’t exist.

• Vaccination Programs: Good Idea

  • Infant mortality tracks between 35-70% lower in places with vaccine access and adoption. Even if the jury is still out for some people on second order effects of vaccines, all of them are a better alternative than death.

  • Now, when people are deceived by pharmaceutical companies and coerced by governments into taking medicine that might have a poor or negative ROI on keeping them alive, that’s a slightly different situation.

It is also important to understand the role of human nature when determining the validity of a good idea. There are plenty of good ideas on paper that fall apart when it comes time for people to adopt them. This often sounds something like, “Well if everyone would just…”

Here’s the thing. Everyone will never just anything. At no point in history have people ever just. If your idea for a solution involves everyone justing, you don’t have a good idea.

These are known as collective action problems. Your only hope here for a theoretical good idea to take hold is to start small, don’t start with everyone.

Words I Wish I Wrote:

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