On Thursday, 5 February 2015 at 21:21:22 UTC, Zach the Mystic
wrote:
On Thursday, 5 February 2015 at 18:44:06 UTC, CraigDillabaugh
clip
You know, I don't even like the use of voting when it comes to
important decisions which last forever. I have no mechanism for
determining fairly who has the right to vote and who doesn't.
Well, speaking more specifically, who is *competent* to vote
and who isn't. D doesn't have a Board of Approved Members, and
so putting something up for vote will let any shmoe (such as
myself) actually have an equal share in the decision making
process.
I believe in leadership. Leadership requires both confidence
and humility - confidence to stick up for yourself when you
know you're right, and humility to listen to others when you're
not sure of yourself. Leadership is really hard... but I think
it's necessary in all but the most trivial of cases.
Imagine all the people on the spectrum of competence on a given
issue - the most people will be found in the zone of least
competence, and the fewest people in the zone of highest
competence. The only reason for leadership to put something to
a vote is if they can reliably assume that the majority will
have a more competent opinion the issue than they will. There
are only two reasons to do this:
But what about?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
1. The leadership is able to admit that they know so little
about the issue that they wouldn't be able to differentiate the
quality of their own opinion from the majority's.
2. The issue is so trivial that the leadership is willing to
sacrifice the best outcome for the social approval gained by
giving all people the vote.
I don't see either of these happening very often in the case of
D. The first case is lamentable indeed, but I don't think it is
improved by just passing the issue to a majority vote. The best
solution, IMO, is to be honest about one's level of ignorance,
and brace oneself for the onslaught of opinions which follow.
Maybe in the ensuing chaos one will obtain at least a modicum
of competence on what to do.
Also, it's often best to use one's lack of confidence on an
issue to win the favor of the higher ups in the community by
deferring to one person's, then another's judgment, than to
just try to win the favor of a bunch of strangers by letting
them all vote.
Anyway, I guess that's just about 5 cents worth of almost
completely unsolicited opinion! :-)
