Mateusz Bagiński
Writer and LessWrong contributor whose essay explores the importance of maintaining slack in biological systems and human planning, arguing against myopic optimization and for cultivating flexibility and robustness.
Best podcasts with Mateusz Bagiński
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Mar 31, 2026 • 11min
“Slack in Cells, Slack in Brains” by Mateusz Bagiński
Mateusz Bagiński, a writer and LessWrong contributor who studies biological and cognitive tradeoffs, explores why maintaining slack matters. He links how cells and brains preserve free capacity to flexible planning. Short scenes cover bacterial size tricks, large-cell adaptations, how slack erodes through tiny choices, and why defaulting to extra slack helps.
