alt Hacker NewsAre you making an economic argument [pace HRV] that wit is better than distinction for avoiding underproduction of science, if it were to be monetarily compensated solely by its [near-zero] marginal unit returns?
> Je défie qu’on me montre une république ancienne ou moderne dans laquelle il n’y ait pas eu de distinctions. On appelle cela des hochets ! Eh bien ! c’est avec des hochets que l’on mène les hommes. —NB, 18 Floréal X
("Can anyone show me a republic, ancient or modern, without any achievements? They call them swag! OK — swag is how men are led.")
Id have hoped that it isn’t much of any kind of argument, since sharp wits can be an indispensable aid to …
(pace Edward Gibbon — personally, via Feynman*!)
… leading by example (showing >>> telling)
( but also/and by swagger
NB hadnt experienced Eurovision, might have expanded his idea of swag..* >But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous (quoted in TFLiP)
EDIT2: seems like NB had other ways to motivate his men (beside fear & swag)— according to that English historian “Livy” was smacked in this kind of context, but we’ll never know for sure now
EDIT: (material) baubles require a more or less centralized fount of honor (as republics ever had), transmission of (the clear products of) wit.. otoh, needs just… a market (of at least one)