Improvement is selfish behaviour because if I improve (win)\u00a0it must be at the detriment (lose) of someone else, surely? Ergo – improvement is not an attractive behaviour because we don’t like to be regarded as selfish by others.\u00a0 What\u00a0assumptions are driving this conclusion? The obvious\u00a0one is the zero-sum-game assumption – that if I improve (win) then\u00a0everyone else must deteriorate (lose).\u00a0\u00a0The Laws of Conservation give us this idea –\u00a0energy is conserved, momentum is conserved, money\u00a0is conserved (that’s what accountants are for – to\u00a0balance the\u00a0accounts).\u00a0But do the Laws of Conservation also apply to qualitative measures such as happiness, fun, curiosity, sadness, anger, fear?\u00a0 If I am having fun\u00a0does that\u00a0imply that someone\u00a0else must be angry?\u00a0 Our intuition suggests\u00a0“no” – if we can both be having fun\u00a0and we can both be angry then the Laws of Conservation does not apply to qualitative measures siuch as feelings.\u00a0 Therefore,\u00a0if we focus attention on qualitative improvement then\u00a0we can be selfish so long as we conciously abandon the\u00a0Win-Lose\u00a0constraint and consciously adopt the Win-Win goal.\u00a0\u00a0Selfishness is OK if your goal is qualitative improvement for everyone.\u00a0\u00a0Win-Win-Win.<\/p>\n
Sounds great! The trouble is when we look around us we don’t\u00a0seem to see the Win-Win-Win principle in action very often.\u00a0What’s missing?\u00a0Our quantitative measures obey the Conservation Laws, our qualitative measures do not so\u00a0maybe we are confusing the two somewhere? What measure can be viewed as both qualitative and quantitative? Time maybe?\u00a0Time is a definitely a quantitative metric\u00a0and\u00a0“Time is Money” is\u00a0a familiar phrase that equates these two quantities. When it is\u00a0MY time we are referring to it feels different and “Quality of Life” is a phrase that springs to mind.\u00a0 So is that where\u00a0I am\u00a0confusing quality and quantity? When\u00a0I am\u00a0talking about my time and my life – my lifetime.\u00a0 Is it OK for me to be\u00a0selfish with my life-time so long as the goal is\u00a0a Win-Win-Win one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Improvement is selfish behaviour because if I improve (win)\u00a0it must be at the detriment (lose) of someone else, surely? Ergo – improvement is not an attractive behaviour because we don’t like to be regarded as selfish by others.\u00a0 What\u00a0assumptions are driving this conclusion? The obvious\u00a0one is the zero-sum-game assumption – that if I improve (win) … <\/p>\n