30 July

The Jevons Paradox says the better you make something, the more people will use it. And the worse it will then get. Everybody who works in public life has felt this, or even every parent. The better you make life for people, the more they will participate in and enjoy that better life you made. And the more it will then break and feel worse. And then the abuse comes, for the people who tried to make life better. Roads here. Dams the same, in every drought people demand more dams. Which increases people’s use of water, which makes water shortages even worse. But it applies universally. Everything you try to make better, will eventually make it worse. The underlying problem here is thinking the trending, viral desires of societies are fixed by trying to satisfy those trending desires.