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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

Easy to mock their ways for being inefficient. That's because efficiency isn't their metric. It's self-sufficiency. To the degree self-sufficiency doesn't become hubris.

So they'll do it themselves if they can. But they'll accept help if that's sensible, because otherwise its arrogance/pride and that's a sin.

An old Amish joke: the young family in the buggy is heading home from Sunday meeting, Father says to Mother "I believe we were the plainest ones there!"

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Another example of using a different metric, from Hans Rosling:

>> A decade ago I lectured to the staff of the Ministry of Health in Cuba. After my talk the Minister happily said, this graphs showed that Cuba is the healthiest of the poor countries! On the way out a young staff member whispered in my ear:

>> – He is wrong, Cuba is just the poorest of the healthy countries.

https://www.gapminder.org/news/cuba-poorest-of-the-healthy/

This is such a joke. Stats on Cuba are usually provided by the Cuban government, not a single one international organization have ever made a census, or conducted an independent inspection to prove/disprove any of the government's claims. As someone who grew up in Miami, with many Cuban friends, and who have also been in Cuban, not in the touristy places(varadero, cayo largo, etc...), but where the Cubans actually live, this is disgusting, and a bad analogy. It blows my mind how people here, are always complaining about China, but go alone with the propaganda from the bloody, murderous Cuban dictatorship. There is plenty of info online, from independent sources on Cuba, on how is the healthcare(or the lack of it) over there, go and take a look.

> this is [...] a bad analogy

That's true. The Amish don't live on an island, and haven't been subject to half a century of embargo and economic sanctions. The restrictions on their participation in the wider society and global economy are by choice, and they freely access whatever outside resources are useful to sustain themselves when they decide that it makes sense to do so. The two situations are indeed incomparable.

Cuba is completely free to trade with the other 85% of the world economy that is not the United States, and indeed they've done so since the Soviet Union collapsed. They do quite a bit of trade with various European countries, and in particular Spain.

Interestingly, they're not even 100% cut off from the US- agricultural exports are exempt, and so Cuba imports quite a bit of US foodstuffs like poultry, soybeans and corn. (Farmers generally drive US economic policy!)

Exactly, the "half a decade of embargo" rhetoric come from people who clearly don't live or never have been in Cuba, nor understand the reason for the embargo. I don't blame them tho, they are just victims of decades of propaganda.

This article really resonated for me. I’m thinking back to my undergraduate degree. I didn’t learn about the web until 1994-5 while interning at a computer company in the valley (the browser was Mosaic). Ok. What’s this? Oh. Your personal bio page. And you like carpentry.

During my undergraduate I had learned about the life cycle of technology, and ‘early adopters’. That seemed like the place to be _if you could afford it_.

So on the one hand you don’t know just how little you know when faced with something completely new, and on the other hand you like the latest and greatest cool new thing, but it often takes a great investment of time or money, or both.

And here is the Amish. Putting family and community and their beliefs first, and taking the time to let the rest sort itself out in time.

I also admire Buddhists, but they don’t want to own anything. Amish way of life seems like a middle ground. But this is all just armchair talk. Pay me no mind.

Another joke, this old Slim Jim commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5DC5cIbKUU

Sorry, couldn't resist

Golden!

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