Interesting engineering video - especially the demonstration of sediment deposition using colored sand. Not really new info, but worth a browse because it's well illustrated and concisely narrated (14 minutes, plus a relevant advertisement at the end).
Nice video.
ReplyDeleteDude did a good educational trick: He asked people to think about obvious solutions and then casually showed why they don't work.
It's a good rule of thumb to assume that obvious solutions to a problem have been tried and don't work for some reason. That reason being that people who are professionally involved and spend a lot more time on the issue than the 3 seconds you have, probably had the same thought and tried.
You should definitively check though, because you will generally learn something, but it is wise to take the attitude: "Hey, this seems obvious, why doesn't it work?", as opposed to: "Why haven't you idiots tried this yet?"
Of course, this only applies to those of us who want to use the scientific method to learn something as opposed to those of use who are trying to bend reality to their preconceived ideas.
Often, simple solutions are off the table not because they don't work but because the solution requires moral and political will. So experts become adept at dismissing solutions that may be obvious to the "amateur," but fail to get traction irrespective of validity. Homelessness in the US is a great example: a third grader can see the solution, but experts are not too interested in being up-staged by a third grader. So, claims of esoteric complexity are recycled and recycled. Perhaps I'm off the highly technical subject at hand, but my point is to sound a note of caution where deference to experts is concerned.
DeleteI did not suggest deference to experts. Deference leads to people not asking questions or being shut down.
DeleteI just said that in cases of complicated problems, one should assume that there's a good reason why "obvious" solutions do not work. Most of the time this is simply because you don't know something about the subject that professionals do. There's nothing nefarious about that.
The pros should be able to explain, so you can learn, as opposed to demanding deference since you clearly don't know who they are.
As for homelessness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPh4PN8e0ds
You are right, the solution is obvious. Over to Finland!
I see some nuance in your position, but this sentence strikes me as worthy of a response: "It's a good rule of thumb to assume that obvious solutions to a problem have been tried and don't work for some reason." Perhaps I'm being picky, but I find the word "assume" in association with "rule" to be startling. Finland: Yes! Thank you. Last I looked, Europeans have less than half the residential square footage, per capita, as the do we in the US. And far less homelessness, with Finland being an example for us all. Paraphrasing Sitting Bull: Americans know how to make everything, but they don't know how to distribute it.
DeleteA counter to your video :-) This dam has been in use since 1936:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EdMImlZE2s 1:05:59 How Hoover Dam Works
It's an hour-long video, very well done, but I was only able to browse the contents. Wondering why you offered it as a "counter" (opposition) to the video in the post, because it doesn't seem to disagree with anything in the original video re sediment. Perhaps you meant "counter" as in "counterpart" (complementary)? Thanks for providing the link.
DeleteUp top it says that 'dams are temporary'. I counter that with this about a dam that has been in use since 1936; it may not be that 'temporary'. :-)
DeleteI understand your point now.
DeleteBut... it's still temporary. Planet earth laughs at your human view that the estimated 10,000-year lifetime predicted for Hoover Dam is a lasting achievement.
DeleteAs someone with primitivist leanings, this strikes me as a great metaphor for civilization: the utility is undeniable, but so too is the hubris.
ReplyDeleteI can't find the source at the moment, but I remember reading about how New England contains thousands of small pre-industrial water mill dams that are essentially invisible; once their mill ponds filled with silt they had no purpose and were forgotten about. Maybe an archaeology project for some future scholar...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.researchgate.net/figure/Map-of-all-inventoried-dams-in-New-England-a-and-location-of-the-six-discussed-removals_fig1_314070620
DeleteLots of little black dots.