Systems of survival
a dialogue on the moral foundations of commerce and politics
by Jane Jacobs · first published 1992
50% recommend40% neutral10% critical
Why HN recommends it
Offers an anthropological and economic framework for understanding corruption, presenting it as a theory that changes how you think about the subject. It takes a fresh angle beyond news-style moralizing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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What Hacker News says
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…is a paradox at work here. You need to pay any sort official enough that they aren't desperate for bribes, but not so much that you attract people into the job motivated by personal enrichment. Read "Systems of Survival" by Jane Jacobs for a good study of this.
on “I Don’t Care How Well You Code, Understand Your Compensation” ↗Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs
on “Ask HN: What good books have you read lately?” ↗…analysis of the nature of corruption from a very cultural, anthropological and economic perspective. It's a refreshing angle from the typical character assassinations you see in the news. It's called Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_of_Survival
on “CEO Wanted University Scientists Dismissed Over Link Between Fracking and Quakes” ↗A slight tangent but Jane Jacobs book Systems Of Survival is excellent, thought-provoking and insightful https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_of_Survival
on “Jane Jacobs: The Champion of Little Plans” ↗Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs. She comes up with an elegant social theory behind the nature of corruption. We know on a certain level why people can be seduced by corruption, but she introduces a higher level concept…
on “Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?” ↗…(a) increasing exports, and (b) substituting imports, both of which get hosed by too strong a currency. (at least according to Jane Jacobs, "The Economy of Cities". Most of her books are good, and "Systems of Survival" might even be relevant to the current US administration) Germany used the post-Plaza strong DM for reunification. Even after adding NIIP to accumulated GDP, I can't figure out what large aggregate…
on “Liquid Cities: Japanese architecture and science fiction” ↗Jane Jacobs, "Systems of survival" is also a good one. Formulates a theory about corruption and the nature of it. Changed the way I think about it forever.
on “Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?” ↗Compare Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class or Jacobs, Systems of Survival. Although the former pretty much makes the exploitative/industrial distinction you have, the latter argues more subtly that the "guardian syndrome" can be good (one wants government regulators who are…
on “The Dark Core of Personality (2018)” ↗> Charisma is especially hostile and foreign to economic considerations. Huh. As per Jacobs' Systems of Survival, some modern charismatic leaders have apparently figured out how to combine rizz and grift? > In Weber's view, therefore, genuine charismatic authority vanishes soon after it appears, or it is transformed…
on “Max Weber's Theory of Charisma [pdf]” ↗In Jane Jacobs' Systems of Survival (1992), she hypothesises two conflicting sets of virtues, one set Guardian, the other set Commerical: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_of_Survival#Descriptio... (that said, Aristotle, who definitely…
on “The City and the Limiting Virtues” ↗…meant with his HD. "Prophets grow stronger when they die." --Villeneuve expressing his headcanon through Irulan, with B Herbert's approval. My architect friends are not so in love with Jane Jacobs' <<Systems of Survival>> -- no mention of beauty, of quality! Besides the Calvinist ancestor-worship, we might also consider the option of keeping the conversations flowing through non-survival. Heh. That's a lot of vanity,…
on “Introduction to Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995 (2001)” ↗…popular+attentionally-limited links are necessary, but not sufficient, for wisdom uncovery.. And that a healthier route may involve actively compensating for the intrinsic asymmetry between Rao's weird & hypernormal in his "new systems of survival". (Contrast with Jane Jacobs' guardian/commercial, or Rao's latest Mandala/Machine dichotomy, when the yinyang dynamic is much more obvious) As I mentioned to GP earlier, one design bug with the current…
on “Lobste.rs/Hacker News links overlap” ↗…for abuse) Crucially, it's the abstractions themselves that need to be fine-tuned. Jacobs had her own blunt ones-- I'd even say that yours sharpens the (overly-)general prescriptions that came out of Systems of Survival :) It won't be a bad idea to fixate on oxymorons, because that's what these "life-giving razor edges" shall look to like to us mortals, for now. An older one is festina lente, due to Augustus. A center…
on “On Jane Jacobs (2017)” ↗@tptacek Later Jacobs would have been okay with financialization of housing, tho' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_of_Survival It ironic that the further she goes from experience & data, the more she ought to be taken seriously... but isn't
By no means trying to be charitable here, though: AI seems to be a attempt to go beyond Jane Jacobs', to go beyond systems of survival (commerce vs values) as vehicles of passion & meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_of_Survival It's made more headway than scientism because it at least tries to synthesize from both precursor…
on “When did AI take over Hacker News?” ↗