@redoPop @sqrtminusone@emacs.ch I don't think you are reading charitably. I also don't think he's saying that the general idea of optimizing <something> is correct. I read him as very skeptical of outside-wise-third-party as rational optimizer.

Perhaps the most telling bit of the essay is how it concludes, with a plain description of virtuous assistance as mediated through parties socially and informationally integrated with, accountable to, affected by, the people they mean to assist.