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My Weird Prompts · Friday · 28 min

Why Universal Standards Fail

State backing, committee consensus, and official decrees are often not enough to make a standard stick. Exploring notable failed standardization attempts reveals distinct failure mechanisms: popular non-compliance against French Revolutionary decimal time, institutional vetos stalling Esperanto at the League of Nations, complexity sinking the OSI networking model against TCP/IP, and entrenched sunk costs blocking universal European electrical plugs. Key sources: • European Commission, REFIT Platform Opinion on Plugs and Sockets, adopted 2017-09-21 — https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2017-09/xii24a_plugs_and_sockets.pdf • European Parliament, Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission, written question E-6-2005-1731 — https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-6-2005-1731-ASW_EN.html • U.S. GAO, Metric Conversion: Plans, Progress, and Problems in the Federal Government, T-RCED-90-61, 1990-04-24 — https://www.gao.gov/products/t-rced-90-61 Episode 6481 — myweirdprompts.com/n/6481 (permanent short link: myweirdprompts.com/549140) Listen on Android: MWP FM Player — myweirdprompts.com/apk

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State backing, committee consensus, and official decrees are often not enough to make a standard stick. Exploring notable failed standardization attempts reveals distinct failure mechanisms: popular non-compliance against French Revolutionary decimal time, institutional vetos stalling Esperanto at the League of Nations, complexity sinking the OSI networking model against TCP/IP, and entrenched sunk costs blocking universal European electrical plugs.

Key sources:
• European Commission, REFIT Platform Opinion on Plugs and Sockets, adopted 2017-09-21 — https://commission.europa.eu/system/files/2017-09/xii24a_plugs_and_sockets.pdf
• European Parliament, Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission, written question E-6-2005-1731 — https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-6-2005-1731-ASW_EN.html
• U.S. GAO, Metric Conversion: Plans, Progress, and Problems in the Federal Government, T-RCED-90-61, 1990-04-24 — https://www.gao.gov/products/t-rced-90-61

Episode 6481 — myweirdprompts.com/n/6481 (permanent short link: myweirdprompts.com/549140)

Listen on Android: MWP FM Player — myweirdprompts.com/apk

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