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Comment by thinkloop | Hacker News Reader

Wanting more STEM seems like an indirect way of wanting more critical, evidence-based, thinking. Atheism is probably a better proxy.

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I assume you joke, but I'm truly worried that the Fundamentalist Christians are making progress towards their goal of imposing Christian sharia law on us all. They are a powerful and single issue voter block. They will show up to vote for anyone, even a "pussy grabber", if they feel it will help their cause. If you've never been to the South and think I"m exaggerating, check out Jesus Camp[1] to get an idea of how this group thinks. People rarely acknowledge the danger of our own religious extremists.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/

Most Chinese political leaders have an engineering background, yet if you asked me what's the main characteristic of Chinese leaders when compared to leaders of other countries, "critical thinking" wouldn't be among the first definitions coming to me.

Do I want more critical, evidence-based thinking, or more decent human beings who want to serve rather than play god? I wasn't thrilled with say Cass Sunstein's ideas when he was appointed by Obama.

Why does it need to be either/or?

To me, being a decent human being who wants to serve rather than play god is a minimum requirement for public service. I also want that person to be able to think critically and base policy on evidence (when there is evidence to be had). Sometimes, these things even overlap: For example, criminal justice.

The problem is the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Everyone thinks they're decent.

Few would disagree that reducing illegal immigration is OK, the issue is ordering a wall with little consideration of costs, effectiveness, game theory, political reactions, etc. The hard stuff.

I wasn't thrilled with say Cass Sunstein's ideas when he was appointed by Obama.

Would you expand on this? I was quite impressed with what I read in Nudge. Did any of this practical thinking carry over to OIRA? Or was that perhaps part of the problem?

It's impressive, but falls into the "playing God" bucket for me.

Gotcha. I'll admit I was hoping for more, but I can understand not wanting to get into it in a comment. Can you point me to a critique (your own, or someone else's) of Sunstein that would elaborate on this for me, in particular his work under Obama?

You won't believe the number of aerospace/mechanical engineers in the federal government that believe in Creationism.

No doubt, being good at cal 8 doesn't mean general smarts.

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