Jess lanai

Human beings are very slippery creatures.

As a human being I am also a slippery creature. For example if I don’t want to do something at work, I can pretend that I don’t know I’m supposed to do it. Then if someone calls me on it, I can say that it’s ridiculous and unfair and still try to get out of doing it.

People have limited time, energy and focus and expecting them to care about every little thing they ‘should’ be doing is ridiculous.

And morals are nice but they are expensive to time, energy and focus so most people only have as many morals as they can afford.

How to afford something is by getting something out of it.

I for example get a lot out of being trustworthy. Because I’m so highly dependent on connecting with the people I like I know the fundamental to keep a connection deep is trust I will thus spend a lot on developing that trust.

So at work if I see a friend needs something I will not pretend I didn’t notice. I may even help them before they noticed they needed help. If they directly confront me for help I won’t think it’s unfair, I will relish the opportunity to develop more trust from them.

In all other circumstances I am a dastardly, slippery beast. Try to get me to do something I don’t want to or don’t care about doing will require force.

And that force will not last. I will eventually escape and I will do as much damage as I possibly can in the process.

So when I encounter another slippery beast and I need it to do something it doesn’t want to do I need to careful how I proceed.

I either need to let it be or I need to entice it because if I have to force it there will be repercussions that are usually much more troublesome than if I just let it go or enticed it.

People are smart. They can find a thousand different ways to get out of things. So if they don’t see the value it’s best to just let them go or increase the reward.

And I’m also a slippery beast so if I don’t want to reward a person because I dislike them or feel entitled to what I want based on shoulds or morals then I often don’t. And I fall into the trap of going to war with another beast. Calling the person lazy or stupid or villainizing them because they won’t cooperate.

As I’ve grown up I’ve realized I have much less power than I think I do in many circumstances. Because even when I do have power that power is fragile and limited.

So much goes into getting just a little bit of power and that power will run out very fast. It isn’t very smart to waste power on wrestling with someone else’s slippery beast by trying make it do what I want it to do.

I’m even more careful on who I go to war with than I am on who I am friends with.

Because I’m a really good friend. People will find the value for themselves and I don’t much have to worry. It’s very easy to flow with people when they are getting value out of something.

But going against something as smart as a human being and trying to make it do things it doesn’t want to do is very dangerous.