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Jeffrey Yasskin

When people ask for a faster horse

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

—Not Henry Ford

When people ask us for a “faster horse”, we should have the wisdom to build them buses and trains instead. The conclusion we’re often asked to draw from this quote is to build cars instead, but cars have been awful for our society. We need to also have the wisdom to avoid building the product that’ll appeal to lots of individuals while destroying their lives in the long run.