Understanding Incentives

The world is getting progressively (but bumpily) less racist, sexist, homophobic, and classist. We are breaking down barriers, but we still have hierarchy. The concept of people being better and lifting groups of people. The directionality of that is interesting because living a simple life can be a choice. There is a story of Alexander the Great out empire building and he comes across a sage sitting on a rock. The one doing external work. The other doing internal work. The Gini Coefficient measures inequality. A Gini of Zero (0) in a two-person world would mean Alexander and the Yogi had the same. One (1) would mean Alexander had it all. If we shared everything, there would be no incentive to get more because it would immediately be watered down (particularly if it was among the 7.8 billion people on the planet). We want to have a sense of reward for what we do. Conspicuous reward. Well done, here’s a gold star. Here’s some money. That’s how we do incentivization. You do something. You get measured against other people. You do something more. Understanding what we do, starts with understanding what incentivizes us.

Gini Coefficients by Country

Competitive Wiring

I don’t want what I am supposed to want. I have a competitive wiring, so people who have known me in previous incarnations will have seen my crazy eye when I choose to go for it. Even when my skills, knowledge or ability aren’t 100% up to the task. We back the underdog over meritocracy, or we would be wired to roll over and play dead. A school buddy teases me about shouting, “we can still win this” at 78(ish)-0 playing Maritzburg College. We lost 111-0. But when I am the me I like, I try find ways to wiggle out of the nonsense. I don’t want to play in a world where we are constantly weighing and measuring each other. In a way that stops us seeing each other. Where the quality of our lives is determined through regular sortings and divisions. Where we cut each other loose like gangrenous limbs when we can’t reach common cause. I want more than that. Part of that comes from acceptance. I know. I am trying to work out what I can and what I can’t accept.

Competitive Wiring

Fat Men Searching

Bob Dylan sings about fat men and thin men looking for dignity. Searching high, searching low. Have you seen dignity? It is one of my biggest quibbles with Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”. He chips away at the idea of wealth creation as a battle to the death, but doesn’t quite let go of the linear development of the age. There is still the idea of more is better. He just argues we can all have more. Against barriers. For mobility. But he also argues for a greater expense for supporting the dignity of the monarch in an opulent society. “As in point of dignity a monarch is more raised above his subjects“. One of the biggest obstacles to financial security, and even adequate climate responses, is “the lifestyles to which we are accustomed.” Tying dignity to conspicuous consumption. If you want to become financially secure, one of the most powerful tools is to become a Minimalism Geek. Get a copy of “Seneca – letters from a Stoic” and chew on the lessons on how to become immune to life’s setbacks. What people see without effort, is not who you are.

Wealth as Opulence

Louis XIV of France "The Sun King"

Reigned 1643 -1715

Bound Slave

Although building Engines is an incredibly empowering financial goal, I prefer to think like Michelangelo. The Italian sculptor would create his pieces from a block of marble, by removing rather than by adding. The final piece was trapped within the block awaiting release. One of the challenges we face given almost everyone lives hand-to-mouth (even those with big hands and big mouths) is that we end up manufacturing discontent. Money is often made by convincing someone that there is a gap between their reality and something better. That there is something wrong with their life, and by implication them, now. That the only way to achieve the success, recognition, and validation they seek is through more. I believe, and not in a fluffy that’s-so-cute way, that we can learn more from people with less. That what is often required to still the financial waves is seeing that stillness is already within your grasp. Internalising behaviours. Taking a breath. Learning to pause. Seeing versus striving. Gently chipping away at the obstacles.

"Bound Slave - known as Atlas"

Michelangelo (1530-1534)