May 16, 2021

Overcast sunrise with bikes and geese.

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Time: 5:42 a.am. 

Did I bike there? No. And bikes are forbidden there. I ran — getting back to my sunrise run (after several days of babying myself after a wisdom tooth extraction). 

Even in Madison, rules are transgressed. Not by me, though. I'm a rule follower, one of the class of persons who are restrained by rules that are not actively enforced and that those who only follow enforced rules do not follow. I regard that as a fundamental unfairness. 

And yet, I can see that willingness of some people to break rules is part of a dynamic that works against excessive restraint. A rule that everyone follows, though there is no enforcement, is probably an excellent rule.

1 comment:

Ann Althouse said...

Scott writes

" A rule that everyone follows, though there is no enforcement, is probably an excellent rule."
.
Reminds me of:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/comments/8nihbj/the_oval_walkways_at_ohio_state_university_were/


That's the idea that you should make rules based on what people naturally tend to do. That is, if you want people to walk on the paved walkways, it's a good idea to pave the pathways that formed naturally as people walked where they wanted.

But there are also things that almost everyone will do once there is a rule, people will see the value of the rule and follow it. Sometimes there's too much disorder and people are causing the disorder but would enjoy better order. You establish a rule and when people know what it is, they follow it.