Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps “Why the West Should Be Like Wikipedia” with Nicholas Gruen
28 snips
Jan 22, 2026 
Nicholas Gruen, an economist and public intellectual known for his work on democratic innovation, joins the discussion to challenge how we engage with democracy. He critiques the influence of social media in politics, arguing that it prioritizes outrage over meaningful public discourse. Gruen advocates for a model inspired by Wikipedia, suggesting that randomly selected citizen assemblies can elevate public consideration over populism. By comparing democratic processes to jury systems, he underscores the potential for more representative governance.
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Shared vs Private Interests Shape Institutions
- Human interactions are an ecology of private and shared interests that must be balanced for institutions to work.
- When private interests dominate, institutions decay and the shared project fails.
Wikipedia's Meritocracy Beats Viral Noise
- Wikipedia succeeds because it targets verifiable questions and builds a meritocracy around reliability.
- Open systems succeed when there's a clear objective like truth or functioning code rather than opinionated debates.
Virality Amplifies Primary Preferences
- Social media rewards high-arousal, attention-grabbing content that favors primary preferences.
- That incentivizes short-term private gain over the subtler public interest and corrodes constructive deliberation.
