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Re: what is the problem bis

2010-10-26 13:40:11


On 10/26/2010 11:27 AM, Ross Callon wrote:
    What is
taking attention away from discussion of the actual barriers is the lengthy
debate about Russ's proposed change.

Here's where the term 'opportunity cost' applies:

Taking action that does not achieve what is desired consumes energy and time and often eliminates the ability to achieve the goal later. This is a strategic and very damaging cost.


Russ's proposed change is a small step in the right direction.

Folks keep saying that. However the change is actually quite irrelevant to the direction.

I'm a fan of reducing down to 2 levels, too. But it has nothing to do with how overblown the effort to get to Proposed is. (Well, there's some pretty simple psych logic that says that it could actually make the barrier to Proposed HIGHER! After all, fewer steps means that each step is more valuable.)


It is not going to solve all problems

There is no need to invoke that bit of extreme and unasserted goal.

It is not going to solve /any/ of the major goals it puts forward.



The only way that we can find out whether moving to a two stage process will
help is to try it out.

"try it out". I love this experimental attitude about a fundamental, production service for the Internet.

After all, it doesn't hurt anything to try and fail, right? It's not as if a change like this affects an entire, global technical community.

I will again invoke 'opportunity cost'. Changes like these are very far from free, in strategic terms.


In my opinion the fact that this very simple and straightforward change draws
such heavy debate is a disincentive to anyone who would propose other
additional changes.

It is certainly true that our community would rather criticize than enhance.

But the real problem here is that that problem leads folk to ignore legitimate criticism and to refuse any sort of comparative analysis of alternative approaches to enhancement.

d/
--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net
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