Problems of Scale

There is a difference between knitting a sweater over a week’s time and knitting 1,000 sweaters over a week’s time. Lots of the commentary I’ve read lately fails to recognize that. It’s not just 1,000 times more complicated. It’s many, many times a 1,000 times more complicated.

For Iceland to test 8% of its population of 365,000 people is a major undertaking. For the United States to test 8% of its 330 million population isn’t 1,000 times more complicated. It’s a million times more complicated. The logistical, manpower, communications, and material components are all incredibly vast. That’s sufficiently complex that it may not even be a worthwhile goal at all.

We need to be smarter than that.

4 comments… add one
  • steve Link

    Killed many a case of beer listening to that song.

    Steve

  • GreyShambler Link

    Smarter:
    Everyone is a carrier in my mind for the next two years.

  • jan Link

    Is paranoia now permanently in place?

  • Icepick Link

    Is paranoia now permanently in place?

    Just now? You’re only about 100,000 years late to the party.

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