Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)

8 hours ago

A change to comments links was made to prevent pop-ups, though its effectiveness on permalink issues is uncertain.
The author reflects on a personal maxim: 'Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance', citing its relevance in political and economic contexts.
The post explains how business school lessons, such as evaluating ideas' integrity, assessing fibbers' forecasts, and the importance of audit, were applied to critique the Iraq War and related policies.
Key principles include discounting compromised forecasts and avoiding trust in known liars, illustrated with examples from accounting and war planning.
The author mentions admiration for economist Paul Krugman and the book 'Development, Geography and Economic Theory', while noting starstruck feelings over Galbraith's praise.

Hasty Briefsbeta