Seeing Like a State
by James C. Scott
Why grand schemes to improve the human condition fail: legibility, high-modernist ideology, authoritarian power and prostrate civil society, against local practical knowledge. Essential for anyone planning anything large.
Read it if…
you want to understand why top-down plans fail.
See the book →
Skip it if…
you want a quick read.
Try instead: Normal Accidents →
Three things you will actually use
- Legibility simplifies and destroys.
- Metis, local know-how, matters.
- Plan for reversibility.
Do this first
Read the chapter on scientific forestry.
Our verdict
Why big plans fail.
See the book →
Compare with other Character books
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Self-justification, explained.
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