Weeds

If you plant a garden and then say 'I'm not going to remove anything or water or prune because I believe in survival of the fittest'

you will soon find yourself growing weeds.

Predictably Irrational

A conversation a few weeks ago convinced me to pick up Predictably Irrational. It fits rather well with things I already knew, and definitely goes far beyond. 

I was reading the chapter on market norms vs social norms, basically pointing out that people act differently depending on which set of norms are in play. We don't charge friends for moving their couch, for example. And we don't work for free.

The examples he used also show another norm. Something I thought pretty obvious, but hard-hearted business leaders seem to forget - when market norms are in play, the quality and quantity of work depend on how much you're compensated for it. (This is also probably why they try to shift the situation to a social norm, by building a sense of community, etc - but given they don't actually act like a family since everyone knows they will fire you in a heartbeat, going beyond the typical office norms just seems pretty fake.)

Cheap out and pay people poorly, and you get what you paid for - a bare minimum of effort.

Too True

It's from a fictional story, but I think it applies just as well to building a nation. And the decay I see - the resentment at doing needed maintenance, the unwillingness to create the conditions that make a place worth coming to - I get why people liked the slogan to "Make America Great Again" because we sure can see the slow rot settling in. I just wish they looked for a candidate that was actually interested in doing such a thing, instead of believing the words of someone who clearly doesn't.

But I'm getting away from the quote that started this:

"The road. The water. The shelter. The welcome. These were the conditions. The people are what the conditions produced. You cannot make people come. You can make the place worth coming to. 

"And when the place is worth coming to," James said, "it makes itself." 

"Not without maintenance," the elemental said, with the precision of something that understood what happened to springs that were not tended. " The conditions require attention. The welcome requires renewal. A place that stops being made is a place that starts to be unmade."

James thought about the list on his wall. About the road and the cistern and the market day proposal under the rock on his table. About Ren walking the perimeter twice daily and Eletha tracking the game population through the winter and Herbert with his accounting of iron stock and Bogrog with his bark-mark system keeping the agricultural record. 

About Caroline keeping rooms ready. 

"The maintenance is the work," James said.

 "The maintenance is the love,"  the elemental said, with the specificity of something that meant the word precisely.  "You do not maintain what you do not love. What you love, you maintain without being asked."