[governance] reality check on economics

[Avri Doria]

On 20 May 2012, at 12:01, Kleinwächter, Wolfgang wrote:

> see:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot

I think "someone who acts in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way." works quite well as a definition. It is pretty close to the definition I have in mind when I use the term.

Though I admit I would expand the definition to be area and context dependent.  Someone can be the leading intellectual light on one topic and a complete idiot (see definition above) on another.  

As I said, i think we are all probably idiots (see definition above) in some context and from some point of reference. Life long learning is about the attempt to minimize the number of occasions where this occurs.  And I doubt many of us achieve a totally idiot free state of being in the course of our lifetime.  Though of course I am not capable of judging the Relative Idiocy Quotient *of any other person. 

On 20 May 2012, at 12:23, Roland Perry wrote:

> A lawyer can proclaim knowledge of the law (quite justifiably) when entering a technical environment where they nothing about the technology.
> 
> But they do know what the technology should deliver (eg: privacy and security). Surely their opinion about that is as valuable as the technologists'?

Possibly, but not if s/he comes in proclaiming that s/he understands the technology.  There are however, many lawyers who are capable of understanding the technology and who do so.  They belong there, and are there, as much as anyone else.

avri

* Relative Idiocy Quotient - Ratio of areas you know something about and productively contribute to to areas in which you know little or nothing and  behave in a self-defeating or significantly counterproductive way


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