Seeing Like a State

A masterpiece on how states simplify complex realities to make them “legible” - and the disasters that follow when they impose these simplifications on the world.

Scott’s examples range from scientific forestry in 18th century Prussia to Soviet collectivization, all illustrating the same pattern: high modernist ideology + authoritarian state + weak civil society = catastrophe.

The concept of “metis” - practical, local knowledge that can’t be systematized - changed how I think about expertise and centralized planning.