This piece was triggered (I can use this word in a non-political way, right?) by a conversation with Phil Pearlman.
Change. Is. Hard.
Triggered is relevant, though. How many people have you heard say something like this: “Well, this happened and it made me do X?”. Or, maybe, “My friend did this and that caused me to do Y?”
We are reactive, we humans. We have something like 250,000 years of instinct built into our operating system and less than 200 years of modern society. Human OS (I credit this phrase to Jim O’Shaugnessy, who has roughly 168 times as many Twitter followers as me) has no coding team, no user design team, no consistent user interface, no technology strategy plan, and no implementation strategy or upgrade schedule. There is no commonly accepted coding (or communication) language, either.
We have lots of (24-hour per day) brainwork happening, trying to maintain our current state, fighting change (mostly unconsciously) and generally obstructing our brain evolution. Look at the fear surrounding ChatGPT and all the other AI tools. Virtually every new technology has created jobs, lots of new ones, net of job loss, and expanded our society’s capabilities. What’s the first thing that happens when a technology emerges? Fear of loss. That is Human OS at work.
Ever watch crabs in a pot? They actively prevent each other from climbing out. They could all get out. We humans do the same thing. As an example, thinking about the Ja Morant situation, maybe I understand how he got to where he did (disclosure, I love basketball, mostly college, started watching him in college - Murray State - and continue to be amazed at his talent and incredible work ethic). He grew up in a segment of society and all of his friends and family want him to continue to be a member of that segment. They work actively to keep him there. His acclimated brain wants to stay there. Looking at his situation from outside, from a different societal segment, given his financial situation, recognition, and career potential, did his behavior make any sense? No. Given his upbringing and that societal segment, did it make sense? Almost certainly. I am not saying it is acceptable. I am saying this: if you can begin to understand where someone has come from, you might have a chance of understanding why they do what they do.
“You care urgently about your social position, despite your best intentions. And you're surrounded by people who care urgently about their social position, despite their best intentions. The mammalian urge for social importance is obvious in daily life, but we learn to blame those feelings on others instead of recognizing how we produce them.”
An example of just how powerful the pull to stay in the pot can be was Germany, the 30’s, and the rise of National Socialism a murderous dictatorship. I have been reading Resistance Women, a historical novel. There are many examples in this book of how objectively terrible things can radiate through society and be normalized. There are a number of parallels with respect to things happening in the United States (and Brazil, and other countries) today. You think it cannot happen here? History and brain science say, oh yes, it can.
Inertia
Inertia is a property of physics. It also applies to Human OS. There is physical inertia, in one way, from the pressure you receive from your crew to remain unchanging, or to change with one or more of them as they change. It is definitely a cognitive and on occasion verbal or physical fight. Although, among humans, we share 99.9% of our DNA, we are all, uniquely, ourselves. There is the constant push and pull between what our thinking wants us to do and what our community wants.
This results in mental inertia, too. It is compounded by the fact that intentional thinking, especially about change, is hard. You cannot stop the thinking. Sure, you can be (and I believe in practicing it) mindful for periods. But be able to stop where the brain goes? Emphatically, no.
This works in an negative way, as well. The Germany example also shows that once a societal change has occurred, making a subsequent change is extraordinarily challenging, even when the majority of the Earth’s societies are at physical war with you.
You Are Your Own Captain (h/t Phil Pearlman)
No matter what our brains try to tell us and how much we want to say that someone or something’s action caused ours, we are our own captains. We all have the capacity to change and to manage our responses. One thing I learned white water canoeing - you do not want the river and its current to control where you go. You will get a poor outcome. You must decide, with your paddle, where you want to go. Our past is a heavy object. It has momentum. Considerable force is required to change direction and/or stop a behavior or habit.
This is Newton on the subject:
“Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”
“The change of motion of an object is proportional to the force impressed; and is made in the direction of the straight line in which the force is impressed.”
We have to, if we want to change intentionally and in the direction of our choice, apply force to the inertia and get the particles moving. Being your own captain means understanding the force needed to create personal change. It means understanding how your unique body and brain work. It takes energy to discover and define what you really want - doing the hard work to think about what really motivates and stimulates you. Taking a small action, every day, towards those things, takes (mental and often, physical) force. It can take what feels like a long time to implement lasting change. Applying a small force over time can create great, sustainable change.
One Person Can Change the World
Having just gone through how hard personal change is, how can you say one person can change the world? Gandhi, FDR, Churchill. Each one changed the world. They built followings. Followings that developed first in one-on-one interactions. One became hundreds, then thousands, and then millions. Each spent many years fomenting change. They had help. Lots of it. First, though, they had the courage to change themselves. To adopt a different way of doing, of being. They, in some cases, proselytized change. In others, what they were doing, saying, and being attracted others. There is no one right way.
In my business, by far the best path to creating wealth, with wealth being defined as assets/capital that you will not consume in your lifetime, is compounding. Personal compounding, one person at a time, is what changes the world. Barring an asteroid apocalypse, that is.
Even if no one one follows, changing yourself is rewarding. You are being who you wish to and are meant be. Nothing is more satisfying. You will never be a face in the crowd. You will be your unique you.
One person can change, create a thundering herd, and change the world.
Sundry:
I spent this writing session listening to Lucinda Williams. Musical talent always astonishes me.
I am no master of change. My victory of the week? I suffered a serious back injury last October. I have been fearful of the pressure being on my road bike puts on my back. Knowing that this is no longer reasonable, given my recovery, but struggling to act and change, I gave my bike away (to my son), went for a bike fitting, and committed to buying a new bike. I also told my riding buddy that I was ready to resume our long Friday rides. What’s your victory of the week?
My favorite financial books, ones I am always recommending: The Geometry of Wealth, The Psychology of Money, How a Second-Grader Beats Wall Street, The Behavioral Investor.