<story><title>Lee Kuan Yew&apos;s Singapore</title><url>https://palladiummag.com/2020/08/13/the-true-story-of-lee-kuan-yews-singapore/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wenc</author><text>Wow. This article is one of the most compelling I&amp;#x27;ve read in a while. There&amp;#x27;s even a bit in there about models and reality with respect to (authoritarian) governance and size, and why simplistic schemata suffer from large errors in larger states:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Decision-makers must rely on simplified models to make their decisions. All schemata are by nature imperfect representations of reality. Indeed, a scheme that reflected reality perfectly would be cluttered and uninterpretable. The reality is always more complex than the plan. In large countries, the planner is further from ground reality than in tiny city-states. Abstractions and errors inevitably compound as the distance increases.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;and on first-principles:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Ironically, Lee Kuan Yew himself had no patience for other people’s models. In his words, “I am not following any prescription given to me by any theoretician on democracy or whatever. I work from first principles: what will get me there?” If there is a lesson from Singapore’s development it is this: forget grand ideologies and others’ models. There is no replacement for experimentation, independent thought, and ruthless pragmatism.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;In that sense, Singapore is like a startup at a country-level.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ergocoder</author><text>Yes. It&amp;#x27;s one flaw of democracy.&lt;p&gt;In a dictatorship, if the leader is great, it will grow like crazy... It&amp;#x27;s like a startup with great founders.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, the problem will come when a hand-off needs to happen.&lt;p&gt;Singapore is clever enough to keep the democratic process, so it has some decent hand-off process.</text></comment>
<story><title>Lee Kuan Yew&apos;s Singapore</title><url>https://palladiummag.com/2020/08/13/the-true-story-of-lee-kuan-yews-singapore/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wenc</author><text>Wow. This article is one of the most compelling I&amp;#x27;ve read in a while. There&amp;#x27;s even a bit in there about models and reality with respect to (authoritarian) governance and size, and why simplistic schemata suffer from large errors in larger states:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Decision-makers must rely on simplified models to make their decisions. All schemata are by nature imperfect representations of reality. Indeed, a scheme that reflected reality perfectly would be cluttered and uninterpretable. The reality is always more complex than the plan. In large countries, the planner is further from ground reality than in tiny city-states. Abstractions and errors inevitably compound as the distance increases.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;and on first-principles:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Ironically, Lee Kuan Yew himself had no patience for other people’s models. In his words, “I am not following any prescription given to me by any theoretician on democracy or whatever. I work from first principles: what will get me there?” If there is a lesson from Singapore’s development it is this: forget grand ideologies and others’ models. There is no replacement for experimentation, independent thought, and ruthless pragmatism.&lt;/i&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;In that sense, Singapore is like a startup at a country-level.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nickff</author><text>You may be interested James C. Scott’s “Seeing Like a State”, which is an excellent book that focuses on these issues.</text></comment>