ofc1996

@soaproot @emilyriehl There are a few downsides though: a) *Chaos* it can lead to political instability. One party essentially never gets a majority. b) *Independents* In Ireland this manifests in a lot of power for independent candidates who get elected by bribing constituents, and generally never have the country's national interests at heart. When in government getting the local potholes to be fixed takes precedence over matters of substance. They also can pull the plug on coalitions on a whim leaving everyone scrambling. Oh, and some of them are breathtakingly corrupt but keep getting elected. c) *General lunacy* Related to the previous point, but lots of crazy people get elected because the the threshold is lower. We're probably going to have a few unapologetic Nazis next cycle. d) *Weird vote patterns* It leads to odd strategies involving elaborate vote management. In Ireland, we have the Healy-Rae political dynasty who are excellent at this. It's gerrymandering but takes a mildly different form. e) *Not great governance* I would not say Ireland is particularly well-run, especially for a small, rather wealthy country. The infrastructure sucks, National Children's Hospital years over budget, the political class seem incapable of dealing with systemic issues like housing. Not all of this can be blame on the political system, but the it definitely plays a role.

@jonmsterling@mathstodon.xyz I don't think he did that, at least not conciously. He was writing a paper a week at some points in his career. I think an Erdos problem just meant "I couldn't immediately see how do this."