Sugar High

We are forced to do some work to understand politics, in much the same way that we must understand money. Politics can be frustrating when it is about darkness. About hiding information and installing hierarchy. I do not like people being bullied, and I do not like people being told what to do without their enthusiastic consent. 

Money making boils down to solving problems. If you genuinely want to create compounding momentum, you must repeatedly make yourself redundant. To confidently do that, you need a sense of ownership. To feel part of a solving container. Otherwise, once you have a solution, why ask you again? There are 8 Billion people on the planet. As Warren Buffett says, “You don’t have to swing at every pitch.” BUT... I refuse to be someone’s pitch. 

The other more cynical path is to make yourself irreplaceable. Create problems only you can (pretend to) solve. 

I do not like that path. I like the path of genuine and honest problem solving. That requires trust, ownership, and inclusion in the containers we build. A strong enough commitment in a relationship to share the truth. One of the reasons we do not talk about what we earn, our real weaknesses, and what we do not know, is it can solidify internal waves of anxiety about inadequacy. It is hard to ask for vulnerability in a world that punishes it in favour of conspicuous overconfidence. 

Which means there is a level of darkness about what opportunities are available. Which clogs up realistic paths of skill and knowledge development, and leaves solvable problems scabbing our eyes closed. 

You are not the problem. The problem is the problem. Treating people like pitches, turns them into problems. 

One of the most important lessons in the world of money is that “Price is not Value”. 

We half wish that it was, because of a love for scorecards and a way of measuring progress. If you can measure something, you can control it. People partly love big salaries because it is a conspicuous sign that you are making it in the world. Unfortunately, all a big salary means is that there is an undersupply of the thing that you are providing. Or there are significant barriers to entry. Or there is a lack of transparency. There is a container that creates the ability to earn more, but it is not value. There are lots of valuable things that are abundant. A high price is just an indication of scarcity. 

Not everything that counts can be counted and contained. Not all good ideas are good business ideas. Not all good business ideas are good ideas. 

The challenge we face with politics is that we want it. The most political people I know use phrases like “leave your ego at the door”, and ask “how do we get rid of the politics?” without a hint of irony. The darkness from lack of transparency protects our interests and vulnerabilities. We like positioning ourselves against other people, if we come out on top. We like the sense of superiority. We like getting better. We like progress. We like being incentivised. We like action. We like feeling like we are doing something right, and moving forward. 

We create these hierarchies as a way of making sense of the world. As a way of feeling like we are moving. Feeling a sense of life. It is an easy option to measure the world. Money is like salt, fat, and sugar for the taste buds. It is not subtle flavouring.

Craving Incentives