CEO follows Ayn Rand's advice, mysteriously fails as businessman

[P3nT4gR4m]

or do you want to talk about something productive and interesting?

Apologies, I'll try again..

Heh.  Ok, I think we got that sorted out.

Anyway.

So if the entrenched culture in which I live is running game rules based on Zero Sum, how the heck can it be changed?  From a functional perspective, what's to be done?

I suppose it's like anything else, act local; if you can influence the people around you (your "tribe", or that trope about teh "50 people that make up your personal communuity") to be less dickish, at least part of your reality will be improved.

What I'm trying to examine is something that isn't necessarily imposed by culture. Before we even had culture. I'm specifically trying to reduce zero-sum as a form of logic which holds true in a given situation. Sometimes problems can be solved by negating an obstacle or opponent. I'm not saying these problems can't be solved other ways but they often appear to be played that way. We play zero sum against things other than each other. Maybe this isn't "classical definition" zero sum but it plays that way, imo.

We're dealing with some highly speculative science, here. A lot of blanks to be filled in. There are a lot of blurred lines at present. Where things begin and end. "hardwired" v's "learned" response. Can "hardwired" be "rewired" (biofeedback control of autonomic systems, etc) At some point one system becomes another and it's kinda sketchy where the join is. I'm not even convinced there is necessarily a join.

The repercussions of that suggest to me that fixing society will not fix the whole problem or indeed even be possible, given that all of our brains will still be capable of applying the logic to a given situation. We, collectively, will still exhibit behaviour which appears to the casual observer to be "hardwired". The status seekers, the power trippers. It won't go away.

[LMNO]

Er... looks like we still haven't found common ground.

Sorry about that.  My bad.

[Salty]

Heh.  Ok, I think we got that sorted out.

Anyway.

So if the entrenched culture in which I live is running game rules based on Zero Sum, how the heck can it be changed?  From a functional perspective, what's to be done?

I suppose it's like anything else, act local; if you can influence the people around you (your "tribe", or that trope about teh "50 people that make up your personal communuity") to be less dickish, at least part of your reality will be improved.

I think you've got it. It's a slow crawl. You have to effect what changes you can in the small amont of time and influence you are given and capable of. If possible, you have to scream if from the rooftops, so to speak.

I used to have a lot of fun fucking with true beleivers, no longer. I look for people who mean well, but just don't quite get it, and nudge them. "Hey, don't do that, boss, kay?"

It's a lot like when your friend has something hanging off their nose, you just tell them. That's about as good as we can manage, I think. There is no sense trying to compete with The Machine.

From a business perspective, when you're too small you should just not even try for branding. Compete with Pepsi? Stupid. Instead you have to engage in problem solving marketing. You find people's needs, what challenges they face in acquiring them, and devise slolutions to both.

It's the same with changing culture, IMO. You have to make personal what corporations cannot.

EXAMPLE: my housemate has some family that's been racist their whole lives. Nothing would change their minds that black people were lazy and inherently criminal. Then one of their daughters had two daughters from a black man. This changed their whole minds on the matter. They love those little girls and would smash anyone who said an unkind word to them.

That's how you create lasting change, by showing people in ways they cannot avoid that the world doesn't work the way they think it does.

[Salty]

Also, I suppose just increasing the number of brown and white people banging each other will probably help matters, eventually.

[LMNO]

Favorite line from a cool movie not to many people heard of, Bulworth:


"Everybody just keep fucking everybody until we're all the same color."

[Salty]

That is a super cool movie.

And a solution I think we can all get behind. And in front.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway seem to be making decent progress in the "Not playing life like a zero-sum game" category.

[LMNO]

I find it difficult to identify exactly why I haven't moved somewhere like that yet.


Territorial conservatism, I suppose.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I find it difficult to identify exactly why I haven't moved somewhere like that yet.


Territorial conservatism, I suppose.

Inertia.

[LMNO]

Yeah, that too.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I find it difficult to identify exactly why I haven't moved somewhere like that yet.


Territorial conservatism, I suppose.

It's not all that easy to do, either.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I find it difficult to identify exactly why I haven't moved somewhere like that yet.


Territorial conservatism, I suppose.

It's not all that easy to do, either.

SERIOUSLY reconsidering that job in Hanau.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I find it difficult to identify exactly why I haven't moved somewhere like that yet.


Territorial conservatism, I suppose.

It's not all that easy to do, either.

SERIOUSLY reconsidering that job in Hanau.

Dude, that would be awesome!

[The Johnny]

Sunk cost fallacy, anyone?

I would bail on Mexico, but idk if i want to leave family behind.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I can't leave the country without leaving my children, so that's not going to happen for at least eight-ten more years.