THERE IS NOTHING SIMPLE ABOUT THE GOLDEN RULE | 2004-02-21
I was a discussant at an economics convention, and I was standing in front of a blackboard filled with highly complex calculus equations. As I looked at that board full of advanced math, it occurred to me once again that that entire mass of math was based on three words: "supply and demand."
Supply and demand is all that microeconomics is based on.
This computer I am working with does miracles. But the entire computer language is based on two things, the number 0 and the number 1.
The Wisdom of the Orient consists of Wise Men saying silly things that sound obscure but are actually meaningless. They sit around spouting Great Wisdom while children are dying a hundred feet away of worms and malnutrition.
In the West, we take simple truths and follow them like a bloodhound. We don't sit around trying to impress people by saying silly ass things. We impress the world by DOING things that no one else has ever imagined doing.
There is nothing simple about computer science, though it is based on 0 and 1. There is nothing simple about microeconomics, though it is just supply and demand.
And there is nothing simple about the Golden Rule. If you follow it ruthlessly, it is as complicated as a moon rocket.