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Comment by hprotagonist | Hacker News Reader

with horses in particular, you don’t “control”. You establish a relationship and negotiate. Goats are like this too, as are huskies and malamutes and some other dog breeds.

Relate and negotiate turns out to be a much healthier metaphor for getting shit done, too.

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Every domesticated animal is like this. (I'm not including animals like e.g. goldfish because ISTM there important ways in which they are not domesticated.) The other important aspect is that members of any particular species or lineage within a species have largely the same behaviors. Training and experience might add useful behaviors, but they don't completely eliminate existing behaviors.

For instance, cattle have a way of existence in which they are comfortable. (They really don't like anyone directly behind them, but off the rear quarter is tolerable. Structure like a fence or a road makes it easier for them to walk in a straight line. A single animal might be comfortable in isolation most of the time, but will seek to join a group when stressed. A path that is comfortable at a given speed will not be followed at a higher speed. Etc.) One person who understands that way and is willing to work within it can move a large herd more quickly and easily than twenty ignorant people.

ISTM human beings are also "domesticated", although they display a broader range of interesting behaviors than other domesticated animals do.

> The other important aspect is that members of any particular species or lineage within a species have largely the same behaviors

Re: Why we domesticate horses, but not zebras.

Zebras have a different herd mentality to Horses, pretty much they don't have one. They do move around in groups for mutual protection, but they live more as individuals and do not follow a single alpha male herd leader as horses do. So with horses you can set yourself up as the alpha leader and they will follow you, but that doesn't work with Zebras. This combined with their more aggressive nature has made them impossible to domesticate.

What does ISTM stand for?

"It Seems To Me" is my guess based on usage.

All things considered, I’d say neither the horse, the goat or the husky are good metaphors for getting shit done. The bull is ;)

Perhaps suited for some sets of things, but certainly not for the acquisition, display, or sale of fine china ;) There are many sorts of doings to which the bull approach is terribly ill-suited.

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