[HN Gopher] The Power and Beauty of Incrementalism
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The Power and Beauty of Incrementalism
Author : surprisetalk
Score : 77 points
Date : 2025-06-27 12:39 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (supernuclear.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (supernuclear.substack.com)
| puttycat wrote:
| That's also the beauty of evolution-there's no goal in that
| search algorithm, just open-ended incremental exploration which
| eventually grows beautiful things.
|
| See Kenneth Stanley's book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The
| Myth of the Objective:
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25670869-why-greatness-c...
| lovestory wrote:
| This is the second time someone has recommended this book on HN
| so for sure it can't be a bad read. I will be starting it
| tonight
| michaelsbradley wrote:
| The book may be a good read or bad one, I am unfamiliar with
| it. However, terrible recommendations are made on HN all the
| time, as well good ones, so I'd caution against "recommended
| a few times on HN" (on its own!) as an indicator of much
| anything.
|
| ---
|
| EDIT: changed wording from "multiple times" to "a few times"
| to be more clear.
| nine_k wrote:
| It may be an indicator of popularity / mindshare of certain
| ideas. It says little about the ideas' substance, but may
| still be very important in practice, if you deal with
| people.
| michaelsbradley wrote:
| The git cli tool is mentioned countless times over many
| years on HN, surely an indicator that it's in popular use
| by the commentatorship here.
|
| I've seen many (seemingly informed) mentions of the jj
| cli tool in the last year -- not unreasonable to conclude
| interest in it is growing among folks here, and enough to
| pique my curiosity.
|
| I responded to: This is the second time
| [I've seen that] someone has recommended this book on HN
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I've always found that an "evolutionary" approach to design is
| important[0].
|
| [0] https://littlegreenviper.com/evolutionary-design-
| specificati...
| ants_everywhere wrote:
| > That's also the beauty of evolution-there's no goal in that
| search algorithm,
|
| Yes there is, there's a fitness function, both in biological
| evolution and evolutionary algorithms
| IAmBroom wrote:
| That is not a goal. It is an adaptive strategy to meet
| changing constraints.
| layer8 wrote:
| I'd argue it isn't a strategy either. You can't _not_ be
| subject to it.
| layer8 wrote:
| There's no goal in biological evolution. Being subject to
| natural selection based on the present environment is an
| inevitability.
|
| You could argue that mutation isn't inevitable, but its
| presence and degree is subject to natural selection as well.
| _lex wrote:
| Incorrect. The search algo has a goal: to find out. You just
| think it has no goal because you didnt think in quantum.
| jacknews wrote:
| woah this seems like tribalism run riot.
|
| How about just living, and learning to deal with, the rest of
| society.
| bogwog wrote:
| Yeah, it seems easier (and healthier?) to make friends with
| your current neighbors than to try to build a concentration
| camp of friends.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| In this age, is living next to "10 besties" really needed?
|
| I have one neighbor that I'm really close to - yay! I can
| borrow their wheelbarrow, or they can borrow my sprinkler
| attachment, without asking, and return it promptly (to remain
| friends!). We watch each other's dogs on vacation. All of
| this is much easier than if I had to use a farther-away
| friend.
|
| But my other neighbors are just ... small-f friends.
| Friendly. I would even consider asking them to borrow a cup
| of sugar.
|
| But as nice as it would be to have ALL my besties nearby, we
| do just fine with phone calls, texts, social media, and
| seeing each other at events.
|
| I do agree with the advantage of incremental change. I suck
| at completing big tasks. But if I view each step as a small
| task, I can get there.
| neighman wrote:
| How many of them would you trust to watch your 8mo old
| while you go out with your spouse for a few hours? Or would
| be willing to take your kids to school? Or help you repair
| the rotted subfloor in your bathroom?
|
| I don't understand why most comments here are perversely
| interpreting the goals of the article. Obviously you have
| different life and relationship philosophies, no need to
| knock people doing it the way they want.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| I'm not knocking anyone. I'm asking if this is as
| important as it used to be.
|
| Also, I'm the one who watches my closest-friend
| neighbor's kids in emergency sitations. I've pointed out
| that physically+emotionally close relationship ARE
| important.
| mgfist wrote:
| > But as nice as it would be to have ALL my besties nearby,
| we do just fine with phone calls, texts, social media, and
| seeing each other at events.
|
| I don't recall the article, but I remember reading an
| anecdotal piece where someone talked about how they met up
| with either their close friend or sibling like 10x more
| once they moved from 20 minutes away to a few houses down
| the street. It was like once every day or 2 vs once every
| two weeks.
| Nevermark wrote:
| > In this age, is living next to "10 besties" really
| needed?
|
| When did "need" become a pre-requisite for doing something
| you "love"?
|
| In this case, hanging out as adults in a way that reflects
| many happy childhoods. Where your best friends were all
| walking distance. Where you could do things spontaneously
| with them. Spontaneously and regularly do nothing with them
| (i.e. hang out while doing whatever each of you were going
| to do anyway).
|
| Look up Ikigai. It's often visualized with a Venn diagram.
| The point being, the more positive facets that cover your
| work or life, the more profoundly happy/satisfied you are
| likely to be. There is no reason to stop adding facets such
| as "live my daily life with my best friends".
| rockostrich wrote:
| This comparison feels like it's in _very_ poor taste. The
| article doesn 't promote any kind of ostracizing and
| certainly isn't promoting that anyone in the community is
| forced to be there. Making friends, especially with people
| who already probably have their own social lives, tends to be
| a lot harder than maintaining friends. It's completely valid
| for people who are already in each other's social circles to
| plan to live close to each other.
|
| My partner and I moved into a house on a pretty secluded
| street of a very suburban township. There are 5 houses on the
| block. We're friendly with everyone but we're all in very
| different periods of our lives. Two of the houses have
| younger kids, one has older kids, and one is empty nesters.
| They're all super nice and we're friendly, but none of them
| are coming over to lift heavy weights in the garage while
| Creed is blasting.
| all2 wrote:
| > They're all super nice and we're friendly, but none of
| them are coming over to lift heavy weights in the garage
| while Creed is blasting.
|
| Tell me when and where, I'll bring the pre-workout.
| neighman wrote:
| How can this be interpreted as "tribalism"?
|
| This is simply a response to a lack of resources (time, energy,
| etc) to develop deep relationships during the stage of life
| when one can afford permanent housing. Modernity has made this
| harder than ever before.
|
| If this doesn't apply to you, consider yourself truly
| privileged.
| jacknews wrote:
| How can it not be, where you want to build an enclave of
| 'like' people (alike in friend connections, education,
| outlook, not only race, which is what you seem to assume).
|
| It's a stage of life where you should be branching out and
| meeting 'other' people, not just surrounding yourself with
| college buddies, and further cloistering yourself in that
| bubble.
| mgfist wrote:
| > How can it not be, where you want to build an enclave of
| 'like' people (alike in friend connections, education,
| outlook, not only race, which is what you seem to assume).
|
| There's a strong implicit assumption here that stranger
| neighbors are not 'like' people. For the most part, this is
| not correct. If you buy a $2m home, your neighbor likely
| also has a $2m home, is also well educated, also has a
| high-paying job (probably in a similar field to you) and
| more likely to be the same race as you.
|
| Same if you buy a $100,000 home.
| neighman2 wrote:
| You're doing way too much assuming on who with, when, and
| why folks are doing this.
| deadbabe wrote:
| Friend compounds are typically the ultimate echo chambers. It
| sounds fun, until you have a vastly controversial opinion.
| Suddenly, you are no longer a friend, you no longer feel
| welcome in the very place that you live.
|
| The less you know about your neighbors, the better. They
| could be whoever you want them to be.
| LightBug1 wrote:
| Not sure why you're down-voted. This idea, while good hearted,
| seems nuts.
|
| Venture out into the world, and stay in touch with good
| friends. Simple?
| javier123454321 wrote:
| This is a bad take for a few reasons. You are implying that
| moving close to friends is not 'Living and learning to deal
| with the rest of society'. That is a false premise.
|
| Second, living in community of close friends is a massive
| improvement in quality of life for everyone involved. This is
| as much biological as it is spiritual. You can either do that
| by becoming close to strangers that live nearby or living
| nearby people that are already close to you. Given that the
| average adult from the US moves over 11 times[1] in their life,
| the solution is self evident.
|
| Lastly, using tribalism here is misguided. That implies a in
| and out group. Why use that word instead of 'communalism' which
| implies helping each other.
|
| 1. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-many-times-the-
| aver...
| mgfist wrote:
| In a time when people are becoming less social and more isolated,
| I think creating communities like this is super cool.
| atemerev wrote:
| I am in awe how people can talk about buying 1.8 million homes
| like it's nothing big.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Per the table, that was 4 homes and 5 adults. That's $450k/home
| and $360k/person.
| tolerance wrote:
| The people appalled by this practice have good reason to be and I
| don't think the people who support it are considering the
| consequences, which aren't necessarily bad but subject to one's
| own political ideology. And by that I mean the general ideals
| that a person has on how people should materially cooperate and
| not some popular label imposed by a two-party system, for
| example.
|
| I wonder what the responses would be if you asked the people in
| this "bestie row", their raw opinions on concepts like
| "diversity", "inclusivity", or whatever.
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(page generated 2025-06-27 23:01 UTC)