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Tag: values

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    Language when losing

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    1–2 minutes

    When you are losing, change your terminology: retreat becomes a tactical withdrawal or negotiated resolution, rejection or firing is merely exploring new opportunities, collapse is restructuring, and downgrading is optimization.

    This morale maintenance is more than applying a silver lining; it is a rejection of reality reframed so we never have to learn from failure. More than this, to maintain values, we must believe the surrogate terminology as wisdom and set up irrationality as necessary faith.

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    Distance for Clarity, Flexibility

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    1–2 minutes

    Ideologies, like battle plans, fail on first contact with reality.

    Rigid beliefs break; adaptable principles endure.

    Wisdom lies in conviction tempered by flexibility—engage critically, but don’t be consumed. A belief too fragile for reality isn’t worth holding.

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    All Good Things: not compatible

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    1–2 minutes

    By declaring other values “good,” which is itself a value, we conflate and redefine them as familial. At best, they are a dysfunctional group that is variously at odds and antagonistic to each other.

    The optimistic view…that all good things must be  compatible , and that therefore freedom, order, knowledge, happiness…must be at least  compatible , and perhaps even entail one another in a systematic fashion…is not self-evidently true… Indeed, it is perhaps one of the least plausible beliefs ever entertained by profound and influential thinkers.”

    Isaiah Berlin

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    values without value

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    1–2 minutes

    Justice is an abstract concept linked to fairness and who is in the right. This involves a value-laden story. But keep in mind that values are also abstract: what is right or fair, and for whom? While some values can signify “this-ness” or haecceity (a virtue of uniqueness), most reference utility (use) or moral virtue (good) as the motivation behind broader abstractions such as justice or freedom.

    The problem is not that abstract, taken-for-granted, common-sense values undergird legalized abstractions because the pattern can be recognized, and debate can ensue. Instead, the gradual creeping inward of values shapes the individual.

    The internal self, the consciousness we access from which all meaning must be given, begins with these abstract values, allowing us to respond to situations. And yet, living up to multiple abstract values is an unrealistic burden.

    As values come to us, they are ripe with contradictions:

    Isiah Berlin says the notion that all good things, freedom, order, knowledge, and justice are compatible is “perhaps one of the least plausible beliefs entertained by profound and influential thinkers.”

    Beyond their incompatibility is their semantic drift, deviating from their origin. And yet, we must remember that shared values are the means to unite a group or society to solve a problem. The warning is to begin not from abstractions but from objects: solve for reality (real issues) instead of referencing ever-expanding, slippery abstract principles.

    However, on a more Machiavellian note, if you can hold peace and cooperation in your mind while destroying and betraying, you can become ultimately powerful through an innovative contradiction: values without value.

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    That which is, is

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    1–2 minutes

    That which is, is.

    Survival comes before thriving; once we are thriving, we are full of opinions, ideas, and reasons. Yet this is to forget the first principle and move on to our luxury of wishing for something different: a moral order that justifies our existence and our wishes.

    Squirming and expressing opinions won’t allow you to survive and thrive. There is no “because,” no ideological argument, or complaint that can fight against the rule of the cosmos.

    To apply our complaint to the universe is illogical and downright silly: hubristic existential entitlement begging for destruction.

    ‘Why me?’ is not a question the universe ever answers.”

    Chp7, The Mercy of Gods James S.A. Corey.

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    Value in the Future: implicit vs tacit

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    1–2 minutes

    Implicit is about the unsaid, while tacit is about the unsayable.

    To have implicit permission means it is understood but not spelled out, yet it could be theoretically made explicit or disclosed.
    Example: “Make yourself at home” means you do not need to ask permission for every action.

    To have tacit knowledge is understanding something that can not be described easily.
    Example: Riding a bike or an artist’s masterful stroke cannot be fully described. They are acts of embodied knowledge despite any replicability or theoretical grounding.

    When considering skills that cannot be easily outsourced or replicated (especially in the age of AI), it is implicit that we recognize tacit skills as more human and of higher value, yet making the implicit explicit is what companies can easily measure. This means many companies are not optimized to recognize the values that will allow future success.

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    Expediency vs efficiency

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    1–2 minutes

    Is expediency tied to efficiency? Is doing things quickly for convenience too often misapplied as doing things right optimally?

    Expediency stems from a desire to simplify and act swiftly, cutting through complexity: a brutal chop of the Gordian Knot; there is no time for complexity here.

    Efficiency, rooted in logic, emphasizes timeliness and streamlined action—an unassailable ideal of minimal wasted effort.

    This clarity of efficiency seems truthful and singular, offering a direct, obvious path, which would be sinful to obfuscate with nuance. Yet, in prioritizing speed (a subset of efficiency), we distort the present moment into an inconvenience (along with every other potential expansive revelation.)

    We expedient thing is to compromise the quality outcomes for hasty execution. By over-indexed speed, we destroy the ability to appreciate (to see the value of) quality, the “right” or “holistic” way to do something.

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    reading into vehicular tribalism

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    1–2 minutes

    The prevalence of idiosyncratic flags and bumper stickers is not merely a social observation; it represents a conscious effort to establish a more solid identity, especially when individuals feel they have lost their agency in polite society. This phenomenon is, paradoxically, an attempt to assert one’s individuality and stand out while simultaneously normalizing extreme views.
    For example, a "Come and Take It" bumper sticker signals a readiness to fight for one’s rights. In contrast, a "Coexist" bumper sticker asserts that universal peace and tolerance are more virtuous than adhering to any specific religion.

    More fundamentally, why is this trend seemingly necessary? When governments, corporations, and institutions fail to serve the needs of the people, individuals seek their own unification. When economic systems falter and fail to ensure survival, people often revert to tribalism as a pathological return.

    Even when trapped in the belly of the beast, humans will sharpen their resolve.

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    Priorities as a marketplace

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    1–2 minutes

    Notice that you can respond immediately, altering your plans, when a priority calls: be a person, value, or object. It is instinctual to jump into action without pondering emotional weight when a pet or friend is in distress or when a glass breaks.
    However, when you have time to consider your priorities, they become a marketplace of bidding values linked to emotional states: over time, pleasure beats out responsibility, or guilt wins out over comfort and transforms into duty.

    The trick, as usual, is balancing between the ‘should’ and ‘must,’ the personal welfare and communal bond.
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    Pre-tell, Pre-value: Anchoring

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    1–2 minutes

    Anchoring is a cognitive bias where initial information shapes subsequent judgments.

    As a selling tactic, pre-telling exploits this bias. For instance, labeling a product "delicious" anchors consumers’ evaluative expectations, influencing them to perceive it as tasty. Similarly, using words like "power" to describe a product anchors it in the consumer’s mind as highly effective, regardless of its true capabilities.

    This manipulative use of language sets a baseline expectation, influencing us before intellectual consideration.

    Interestingly, ideology does the same thing: pre-blinding us, pre-disposing us.