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Chance governs life, waste is everywhere, novelty is the exception | blogjou

Daniel S. Milo

Good Enough - The Tolerance for Mediocrity in Nature and Society

p. 77
17 Oct 2023

Chance governs life, waste is everywhere, novelty is the exception


Optimization is the sort of thing neoclassical economists dream about. It combats chance, waste, and stagnation, but these are the consitutive properties of nature: chance governs life; waste is everywhere; novelty is the exception and stasis the rule. And because there are never two identical individuals, at least one in any pair is not optimized. Whereas the art of breeding consists in creating the next improved model, more functional and standardized than the last, nature prefers none of that. Domestication, the foundation on which Darwin’s understanding of nature is built, has one enemy: nature itself.