Every transaction has two sides. Every business is based on transactions. That means for every awesome business success that grew from nothing, there are two parties that made it possible.
Tag: business
The Power of Disassociation
If someone treats you poorly in a free market, the best option is to disassociate and share the information you acquired with other people (if you wish). However, our emotional ecosystem still wants to use mechanisms from evolution where disassociation isn’t an option … tit for tat, anger, retribution, “Justice”, revenge, etc. Emotionally, we are the same as our historical relatives and it is difficult to adapt to a radically new incentive structure.
But, is it Real?
There are a lot of layers of social signaling out there. So much so, and it’s rewarded so heavily in online dopamine hits, that it’s easy to focus entirely on achieving better signals of status at the expense of achieving real value behind it all. When it comes to products, companies, or cryptocurrencies, just use…
Entirely Meaningless and Wholly Unproblematic
Many social and economic problems have no solution. At best, we can only make continuing trade-offs and thereby move to an improved, yet still troublesome, situation. But one problem — at least, many pundits and politicians affect to regard it as a problem — has a complete and easy solution that can be seized at any time. I speak, of course, of the problem of the so-called trade deficit in international commerce.
The Success of Your Friends is Your Success
Envy is evil. Not just for it’s corrosive effects on society, but for what it can do to undermine your own success. Envy makes you bitter and joyless. Worse, it blinds you to your own potential and the opportunity around you. If the success of those around you makes you less happy, you’re in a death spiral. Conversely, one of the great secrets to personal growth and achievement is the realization that the success of your friends is your success. Not metaphorically, and not just ’cause it gives you feels. In a very literal sense.
Where Worker Productivity Really Comes From
In the pre-modern world, workers got little education and had low productivity. In the modern world, workers get much education and have high productivity. Productivity (and education!) keep going up. If formal academic training isn’t the main reason, what is?
The Values and Traits Behind My Best Relationships
What are the values you most look for when forming relationships? Great question! Any answer I give here will be incomplete, but I have come to notice some patterns in my most valuable relationships. Certain values and traits also help me quickly pick out people I want in my “tribe.”
Back Alley Regulation
If you think a regulation is a bad idea, you should probably prefer regulations that target the most humanized humans involved. Why? Because when the law orders people to harshly punish sympathetic targets, law enforcement looks for excuses not to enforce the law.
Good Parenting, MYOB, Spitting Toddlers, & Russian Propaganda (28m) – Editor’s Break 073
Editor’s Break 073 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: what good parenting is; why it’s important to mind your own business and how to balance that with community vigilance; how to deal with misbehavior, such as a toddler spitting on your face; the courage in sticking with your principles, especially when it means standing alone; whether or not we should be concerned with Russian propaganda and election meddling; and more.
If You Build It They Won’t Come
This morning we ate breakfast at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lafayette, Indiana. You had to put your order in at an automated kiosk. But to take care of the people who were confused by these kiosks there was one cashier on duty to take manual orders. There were no people ordering at the kiosks. There were lines of people ordering from the cashier.