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> Jevons paradox

Nobody knew what it was yesterday and now everyone is using it as if they came up with the idea themselves

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...



What are you talking about?

I see two pages, just of submissions on HN, before early last year:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1706400000&dateRange=custom&...

I see over 900 results just for comments:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1706400000&dateRange=custom&...

I personally have brought it up when it's relevant, like when people think energy efficiency improvements always make total use go down:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14764845

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19543772

And when a more efficient website showed more load on the server (because it widened usage to a broader audience):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13602792

How about the more charitable hypothesis: It's a relevant dynamic because this is a situation where the paradox most strongly applies: efficiency improvement in use of an input whose output has insatiable demand. And so people bring it up, even if they just recently learned it from another comment.

It's okay to say something true ... even if someone else already said it elsewhere.


According to google search ~1/3rd of all hits for "Jevons paradox" appeared since January 25 2025

It's the fancy big word of the day if you want to appear smart on social media.


Yes, and again, that doesn't make it wrong or irrelevant. Believe it or not, the popular wisdom can still be correct!


I never said it was wrong, I'm just saying a lot of people became instant experts on topics they had no idea even existed 24 hours ago, including people with grand techno prophecies and people giving financial advices


If someone says something correct that they just learned, they don't deserve ridicule just because they learned it recently and others are saying it too.


I certainly didn't know about it. Was there any high visibility use of it over social media in the past few days?


Satya Nadella on twatter


Welcome to the internet. Astrologers proclaimed the week of DeepSeek, the number of Jevons paradox experts quadrupled.




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