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Comment by tewarbit | Hacker News Reader

"They often don’t have logical reasons for their policies" ...goes on to explain the logical reasons for why certain Amish communities refuse to use automobiles, closed carriages, etc.

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I have read that the Amish make explicit decisions about whether to accept a certain technology into their communities.

A specific example was about technology that saved many hours of simple/light mechanical work for women: as a result, it eliminated the communal practice for women to be together in a large room talking while doing it. The technology was tried but then removed, as the result was less communal engagement.

To oversimplify: we default to using whatever comes up (Facebook, etc), whereas their approach is to evaluate the new thing as a community and decide.

That is really interesting and echoes some of what Camille Paglia has to say about washing in Italian immigrant communities. Do you have the source handy? I’d love to check it out.

It was The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being by Daniel M. Haybron

https://books.google.com/books?id=jAEBzgqniMAC&printsec=fron...

I read numerous books on topic of Positive Psychology ... a really good academic one, tying together the field into a unifying framework is: The Good Life: Unifying the Philosophy and Psychology of Well-Being by Michael A. Bishop

Intentional choices about aspects of society are an interesting thing to consider. But who is making those choices? I doubt women's views were predominant. My grandparents told me of their life on a farm without electricity and the drudgery of life that was vastly reduced with a dish washing and washing machine for clothes.

I'd read that as "not logical to an outsider" rather than "no logic to it."

Amish communities vary wildly on what is acceptable from community to community which can include trivial things like colors and cuts of garments, phone usage/location, type of carriage/buggy features, and what level of mechanization is tolerated. It rarely has a logical reason beyond "this is the way" and is generally dictated by the elders of that specific community. The differences also extend to things like the conditions they'll let a member formerly in good standing return and courtship customs.

If you read Ira Wagler's book Growing Up Amish, he covers some of this as his family (and him alone) moved around various Amish communities in North America.

I think they meant to say something more along the lines of "their policies often seem illogical to outsiders."

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