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On idea-driven ideas

vitalik.eth.limo · 2,910 words · saved by 5 readers

A long time ago, in the pre-Covid century, I remember the economist Anthony Lee Zhang describing to me his distinction between "idea-driven ideas" and "data-driven ideas". An idea-driven idea is an idea where you start off with some high-level philosophical frame - eg. markets are rational, power concentration is dangerous, time-worn traditions are wise - and deduce a more concrete insight from that frame plus some logical reasoning. A data-driven idea is, in its pure form, an idea that comes out of a process where you start with no preconceptions, do some analysis on data, and endorse whatever conclusion you get. The implication: data-driven ideas are clearly the better type of ideas to have and promote. Last month, Gabriel from Conjecture critiqued my approach to d/acc by arguing that instead of starting from an "ideology" and trying to make it more compatible with other human goals, I should effectively just be a pragmatist, and neutrally seek whatever strategies do the best job of

Dark Mode Toggle On idea-driven ideas 2025 Aug 12 See all posts On idea-driven ideas A long time ago, in the pre-Covid century, I remember the economist Anthony Lee Zhang describing to me his distinction between "idea-driven ideas" and "data-driven ideas". An idea-driven idea is an idea where you start off with some high-level philosophical frame - eg. markets are rational, power concentration is dangerous, time-worn traditions are wise - and deduce a more concrete insight from that frame plus some logical reasoning. A data-driven idea is, in its pure form, an idea that comes out of a process

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