The Poverty of Compromise

The podcast also discusses the concept of compromise and its limitations. While compromise is seen as a virtue in resolving conflicts, it is argued that it may not lead to optimal solutions. Rather than finding a midpoint between conflicting ideas (x and y), the compromised idea (zed) often fails because it does not fully satisfy either party. This failure to achieve the best outcome inhibits learning and progress. This idea of compromise is also linked to science, where the goal is not to find the true theory, but to eliminate incorrect ideas. In politics, the poverty of compromise hinders real progress, as it maintains a cycle of returning to the original ideas (x and y) without learning from the failures of the compromised solution (zed).