
Redefining the Scale of Social Problems [pdf] - vitabenes
https://homepages.se.edu/cvonbergen/files/2013/01/Small-Wins_Redefining-the-Scale-of-Social-Problems.pdf
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yboris
A strategy of "small wins" has been what Henry Spira has done during his
tremendous work with animal rights (documented in "Ethics Into Action", a book
by Peter Singer).

As examples: his year-long campaign was the first in history to end an
experiment on animals: specifically an experiment in which the Smithsonian was
(via taxpayer dollars) mutilating cats to see the effects on their sex lives.

Compounding on his concrete wins, he eventually got makeup manufacturers to
design tests (that ended up being better than before!) that did not require
the use of animals.

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yboris
I can't find the article again that uses an analogy for "revolutionary" change
vs "incremental" change: that of slowly climbing a mountain in a fog (roughly
knowing which direction the peak is and going there) vs launching up into the
air to randomly land somewhere. The takeaway is that if we've made it far up
the mountain of progress, a revolution is more-likely to land us somewhere far
below the progress we've already made.

Anyone remember anything like this? I'd love to find the blog post again!

~~~
tehjoker
This metaphor only makes sense if there are no inherit limits to the system
you are working in and you're climbing the right mountain.

For software engineers, think about single core vs multi-threading or scalar
processing vs SIMD. You are limited in the performance you can get in a
particular regime without making radical changes.

~~~
luckylion
> You are limited in the performance you can get in a particular regime
> without making radical changes.

But you don't know where you are relative to those limits. You may be in 1999
on a 400Mhz Celeron and you'll still see plenty of increase in single-core
performance.

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natmaka
Conclusion (quote from the communication): "Calling a situation a serious
problem that necessitates a larger win may be when the problem starts."

Leopold Kohr famously wrote "Whenever something is wrong, something is too
big."

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zackees
"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first
radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know
where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first
radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so
effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer."

— SAUL ALINSKY (Rules for Radicals)

