Those Who Have Everything

Finding out what you’re doing wrong is not a pleasant experience
And it means that you have to sacrifice part of yourself
Usually a burned out, stupid, bitter, corrupt
Arrogant, nasty, vengeful part of yourself
But nonetheless part that you like
I think that room for those incremental improvements
Exists within everyone’s grasp
And I think that it’s a humble thing to do to ask how you could improve
incrementally
Without interfering with anyone else
Like it’s your problem not their’s
But I think that the consequences of maintained incremental improvement are
anything but incremental
You get compound interest on incremental improvement
You know, there’s another rule in the New Testament called the Matthew
Principle, economists use it
The rule is:
To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
everything will be taken
To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
everything will be taken
It’s actually a description of the way the world works
You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly
To those who have everything more will be given
And from those who have nothing everything will be taken
And there’s a reason for that that’s a deep reason
And it’s a very harsh rule because it means as you start to wonder off the path
The probability that you will wonder further off the path increases non-linearly
And that’s a terrible thing to know
As you walk closer to the edge the probability that you’ll fall off the cliff
increases
And that’s statistical justification for the concept of Hell
But as you improve the probability that each improvement will produce a further
improvement increases
And so perhaps the downside is the cataclysmic catastrophe that you can engage
upon
If you reproduce your moral failings but the upside is that each improvement
produces and increment in the probability of the next improvement
To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
everything will be taken
To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
everything will be taken
It’s actually a description of the way the world works
You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly
To those who have everything more will be given
And from those who have nothing everything will be taken
If you’re a behavioural psychologist
And I am a behavioural psychologist
What you do is you help a person establish their aim
Then you break down what they’re trying to do into attainable units
The general consequence of that is that every time they manage an accomplishment
They get a little stronger in character
They get a little bit more confident in their ability
They get a little bit less racked with self disgust
They get a little bit more hopeful about the future
And they get more confident that they can make another change
And if you’re patient, and you have to be patient with yourself that way
It’s like you reward those incremental improvements and you don’t get all
cynical about them
And you think «okay, just imagine what would happen if you keep doing that
every week for 10 years»
And the answer to that is things would be so much better for you that you can’t
even imagine it
With that much improvement
Or maybe even with half that much improvement
To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
everything will be taken
To those who have everything more will be given and from those who have nothing
everything will be taken
It’s actually a description of the way the world works
You know that if you’ve ever played Monopoly
To those who have everything more will be given
And from those who have nothing everything will be taken
And so that’s a, that’s a very good way of progressing