# The miracle of the commons | Aeon source : [The tragedy of the commons is a false and dangerous myth | Aeon Essays](https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth) ## Notes The [[tragedy of the commons]] stipulates that humans, when left to their own devices, compete with one another until resources run out. It is thought to explain all kinds of things, and is one of the most cited papers of all time. Even at the time, however, the author’s contemporaries had shown that this wasn’t the case.