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Mar 2024
14m 33s

Accountable to Darwin vs. Accountable to...

Morgan Housel
About this episode

Woodrow Wilson was the only president with a Ph.D. in political science.

He came to office having thought more about how a government functions than most before him or since.

One of his complaints was that too many people in government held the belief that it was a Big Machine: that once you set up a series of rules you could take your hands off the wheel and let the government run on its own forever. They viewed government like physics, with a set of customs and laws that required no updating or second-guessing because they were believed to be precise and perfect as they were.

Wilson thought that was wrong. He viewed government as being a living thing that adapted and evolved. 

I really don't care about politics. But he had a theory that I think is so important, and so applicable, to us ordinary people managing our money. 

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