Chesterton fences everywhere

What a beautiful article. It captures two ideas that I often think about.

First idea: The sheer extent of our ignorance. We go through life thinking we know a lot, but in reality, what we know isn’t even a drop in the cosmic ocean. Yet thinking we know more than we actually do serves an evolutionary purpose—it prevents us from being crippled by anxiety, doubt, and fear. It gives us the confidence to act and move forward. The problem is that this same confidence, without the humility to recognize what we don’t know, can often lead to disasters.

Second idea: We don’t truly appreciate things until they’re gone—and a related version: extraordinary things become commonplace very quickly for humans. This adaptation helps us because we can’t have our minds constantly blown by wonder. But there’s a trade-off: when things lose their magic through familiarity, we take them for granted. We stop maintaining them, stop tending to them. We neglect the responsibility required to keep them from deteriorating and falling apart—to fight against entropy.

Readers might recall GK Chesterton’s famous fence, a warning against the destruction of existing systems without first understanding their purpose:

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

Chesterton’s cautionary tale speaks to this good-fitness problem.

When a received solution works well, we don’t notice its positive function. The proverbial fence was built by someone long ago to serve a purpose, one it served so silently that the reasons for its being have been lost. The fence sits there doing its job, downstream benefits taken for granted.

Chesterton fences everywhere:

The U.S. entrepreneur Steve Blank gave a great example of Chesterton Fence’s in action. Imagine that a successful startup is growing, and so they hire a Chief Financial Officer to get their ducks in a row. The new CFO, keen to show intent, finds some cuts to make and costs to save. And so they get rid of the free soda and snacks in the office. It’s a job well done. That’s $10,000 saved. But suddenly, the company feels very different. The employees who made the startup successful start to mutter and gripe. “Things are too corporate now,” they say, and “it’s not like it was.” So, an exodus happens. They leave for greener pastures. They leave the cost-cutting ship. They miss their free soda.